VN stocks saved by hopes for trade war truce

A Hoa Phat steel plant in Hai Duong Provine's Kinh Mon District. The company shares on Wednesday made the best gain among the 30 largest stocks by market value and liquidity on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. - VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was up 0.60 per cent to close at 949.69 points.

The VN-Index recovered from a two-day decline by a total 1 per cent this week.

Vietnamese stocks were lifted following good moves across the global markets after positive signs over trade talks between the US and China, according to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS).

On Tuesday night, US president Donald Trump confirmed he would have a long talk with China’s president Xi Jinping about the two nations’ economic and trade issues during the G20 summit next week.

The news sparked hopes around the globe for the truce in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

In Viet Nam, large-cap VN30-Index grew 0.73 per cent to end at 854.34 points.

Twenty of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket advanced while only six declined.

Among gainers were steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), real estate firms Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE), stock broking firm SSI (SSI) and tech giant FPT Corporation (FPT).

HPG, VIC and SSI were also the three most attractive stocks to foreign investors.

Net foreign purchases for the three stocks were VND30.5 billion, VND9.9 billion and VND8 billion.

However, trading liquidity was still low as investors were concerned about possible risks, thus discouraging them from buying in local assets, SHS said.

More than 147.3 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND3.48 trillion.

The figures were lower than those recorded on Tuesday, which were 167 million shares and VND3.87 trillion, respectively.

The focus of Thursday is the US central bank Fed’s two-day meeting, on the coming monetary policies, SHS added.

There would be little chance for a rate cut on Thursday while the nearest rate chop would be as early as July, the Ha Noi-based stock broking firm reported.

Other events including next week G20 summit and the exchange-traded funds’ portfolio reviews this weekend are making investors quite cautious amid the shortage of supportive information, Thanh Cong Securities Co said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched up 0.02 per cent to end at 103.77 points.

The northern market index has increased by total 0.30 per cent in the last three trading days.

Nearly 19.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND269.5 billion.