VN-Index grows for second day on corporate prospects

Buyers at a shop of Phu Nhuan Jewellery JSC. The company's shares advanced strongly to boost the benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.58 per cent to close at 997.39 points, totalling a two-day gain of 1.15 per cent.

The index lost as much as 0.08 per cent during the day.

In the early stages of Thursday, investors reacted negatively to the conclusion of the Fed meeting and the US-China talks, which delivered few positive signs of improvement.

The Fed meeting ended on Thursday morning (local time) with interest rates dropping by 25 basis points – level to previous forecast – but Fed officials disappointed the global markets by signalling no further rate cuts this year.

Meanwhile, the US-China trade talks made no progress to improve the tension between the world’s two biggest economies.

The results had been widely expected by global investors, thus they had little impact on Vietnamese stocks, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS) said in its daily report.

Later on, the VN-Index advanced as large-cap stocks increased. The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity, was up 0.48 per cent to finish at 887.39 points.

Seventeen of the 30 biggest stocks made gains, including realty firms Novaland (NVL), Vinhomes (VHM), Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE), retailers Phu Nhuan Jewellery (PNJ), Mobile World (MWG), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM).

Those companies helped lift the real estate, retail and food and beverage industry indices by a range of 0.6 per cent and 2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

According to SSI Securities Corp (SSI), investors have a positive outlook for the market in the remaining months on expectations that both businesses and the macro-economy will perform better.

Recent data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed total value of retail and food and beverage sales was up 11.6 per cent year on year to reach VND2.8 quadrillion (US$120.4 billion) in the first seven months of 2019.

Purchasing power increased because buyers purchased more in the summer time for hot weather, travel and spiritual purposes, according to GSO, thus boosting earnings of consumer firms.

Meanwhile, real estate firms are predicted to perform better in the remaining months of the year as they may still benefit from loose lending policies, recent reports say.

However, the market will struggle on Friday, according to SHS, as the VN-Index has approached the 1,000-point level which was its previous peak met in April 2019.

The 1,000-point level is the suitable sell zone for investors with short-term appetite, so the VN-Index will likely struggle at this level, SHS said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.52 per cent to end at 103.88 points.

The northern market index ended flat on Wednesday.

More than 248.3 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND5.52 trillion ($237.5 million).