Blue chips pull VN-Index back into the green

By Hung Le July 30, 2020 | 01:45 am PT

An investor looks at stock prices on the screens at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

The VN-Index gained 1.3 percent to 801.13 points Thursday, with most of the market’s big caps in the green.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 256 stocks gain and 104 lose. Total transaction volume, after having exploded in the week’s first sessions, going as high as VND7 trillion ($302 million), slumped Thursday to VND3.2 trillion ($138 million), the lowest so far this month.

The VN30-Index for HoSE’s 30 biggest capped stocks gained 1.48 percent, with 25 tickers in the green and 4 in the red.

Ever since Vietnam confirmed its first intra-community Covid-19 transmission in more than three months last Saturday, the benchmark VN-Index has been fluctuating wildly. After diving 5.31 percent Monday, it pulled back 3.59 percent, then fell 2.77 percent, then proceeded to pull back again this session. The number of new community transmissions in the country has risen to 43.

Leading gains Thursday session were VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, up 3.5 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, up 3.1 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, with 2.8 percent.

In the banking sector, the bigger gainers included TCB of Techcombank, Vietnam’s biggest capped private bank, up 2.5 percent, and CTG of state-owned giant VietinBank, with 2.4 percent.

VPB of private VPBank rose 1.6 percent, HDB of private HDBank and MBB of state-owned Military Bank both gained 1.3 percent, while BID of state-owned giant BIDV added 0.7 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s biggest cap, added 1.9 percent.

Other major gainers this session included SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, up 2.3 percent, CTD of construction giant Coteccons, up 1.8 percent, and MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, with 1.8 percent.

In the opposite direction, EIB of private Eximbank led losses with 3.5 percent. The ticker had just surged 7 percent, its ceiling price, in the previous session.

ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros dropped 0.9 percent, SAB of major brewer Sabeco, 0.5 percent, and VCB of state-owned Vietcombank, 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 1.17 percent; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 1.27 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the fifth consecutive session on all three bourses to the tune of VND18 billion ($776,386), with buying pressure focused mainly on VHM of Vinhomes and VNM of Vinamilk.