VN stocks upbeat on trade deal approval

Vinamilk's cattle farm in Tay Ninh Province. The company’s shares were among those that rose on Monday as the market gave a thumbs-up to Viet Nam’s free trade deal with the EU. - VNA/VNS Photo Le Duc Hoanh

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange closed 1.55 per cent up at 899.92 points.

The VN-Index had gained a total of 2.51 per cent last week.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 1.71 per cent to finish the day at 120.10 to follow on the heel of a 7.53 per cent gain last week.

Nearly 682 million shares were traded on the two exchanges for VND9.51 trillion (US$409 million). This included a record VND7.22 trillion worth of order matching on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

The market sentiment was supported by an uptrend in global stocks following the US employment report last weekend, MB Securities (MBS) said in its daily report.

Investors cheered the approval of the Europe-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Europe-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), MBS said.

The agreements were passed by the National Assembly in the morning, which boosted almost all sectoral indices.

The industries that are expected to benefit the most from the agreements include retail, banking, securities, food and beverages, seafood, and real estate.

The sectoral indices were up 0.9-5.9 per cent, according to vietstock.vn, with the seafood sector accounting for the latter number.

The trade deals are expected to give Vietnamese companies better access to the affluent European markets.

Besides, Viet Nam also expects to attract investment from Europe.

All leading companies in each sector gained, taking the large-, mid- and small-cap tracker indices up by 1.5-2 per cent.

The large-cap VN30 index was up 1.5 per cent as 27 of the 30 largest stocks by market value gained and only three declined.

The gainers included sugar firm Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa (SBT), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

“High trading liquidity has been maintained for the past few days, proving the market absorption is good,” MBS said.

“That indicates investors are highly confident about the market’s prolonged uptrend.”