Bank stocks lead VN-Index to biggest increase in 2 months

By Hung Le   May 15, 2019 | 04:49 am PT
Bank stocks lead VN-Index to biggest increase in 2 months
An investor is seen behind a stock market screen at a securities company in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham
Bank stocks pushed the market up for Wednesday’s session to close at 975 points; the VN-Index rose 10 points (1.07 percent).

This was the biggest gain since March 12 by the VN-Index, which represents 90 percent of market capitalisation on all of Vietnam’s exchanges.

Green was the colour across all three of Vietnam’s stock exchanges as Vietnam’s stock market continued to rise for the third consecutive session, after trade tensions had dragged the index down for six straight days earlier.  

The Hanoi Stock Exchange’s HNX-Index rose 0.7 percent to 106.43 points while the unlisted public companies market (UPCoM) rose 0.5 percent to 55.43 points.

Large cap stocks were the key drivers Wednesday, with the VN30-Index rising 1.2 percent. The biggest gainers were CTD shares of construction giant Coteccons, up 2.5 percent; VIC of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, up 1.8 percent; and PNJ of jewellery giant Phu Nhuan Jewellery, up 1.6 percent.

Shareholder optimism was particularly evident in the banking sector, which saw TCB shares of Techcombank, Vietnam’s biggest private bank by assets, rise by an impressive 4 percent. VPB shares of VPBank and CTG of state-owned lender VietinBank also rose by more than 2 percent each.

Oil and gas stocks were the main losers this session. The majority of blue-chips in this group, such as PVS, PVD, PVB and PVC, were all in the red, each falling by between 0.2 and 1 percent.

They were all stocks of companies in which state-owned oil and gas group PetroVietnam has a direct or indirect stake. Only GAS of state-owned gas company PV gas rose by 0.9 percent.

Despite the optimistic outlook, foreign investors continued to offload shares as all three floors recorded a total net sell value of VND240 billion ($10.25 million).

The selling pressure focused mainly on VHM shares of real-estate firm Vinhomes ($2.8 million), AAA of An Phat Bioplastics ($1.55 million), and HPG of steel-making giant Hoa Phat Group ($1.52 million).

 
 
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