Gains narrow on VN-Index by session end

Despite closing in the green, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of red with 295 tickers losing and 127 gaining, indicating that significant gains in mid- and high-cap stocks was able to carry the market this session.

The benchmark index had climbed as high as 933 points by the beginning of the afternoon session, but fell over 7 points as a result of profit-taking pressure from investors, analysts said.

Total trading volume was at its highest in the past month, reaching VND9 trillion ($388.29 million), far higher than September’s daily average of 6.6 trillion. 53 percent of trading volume went into stocks outside the VN30, a basket of the HoSE’s 30 largest caps.

According to brokerage BSC Securities, HoSE has seen only one losing session in the last five, and will likely continue its upwards trend in the short term to breach 935-945 point resistance levels. However, gains will likely to be accompanied by strong corrective sessions, as well as high variance in the performance of individual stocks as companies release their third quarter financial statements.

"Cash from domestic investors flowing into equity markets is still the main driver of the VN-Index’s recovery, with the monthly number of new securities accounts in September up sharply. Positive information related to the progress of the Long Thanh International Airport megaproject as well as FDI attraction are expected to continue supporting the market," it said.

Data from the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) showed that in September, domestic investors opened 31,418 new accounts, an increase of more than 3,000 accounts compared to the previous month.

In the first nine months of the year, domestic investors have opened nearly 253,000 new accounts, 64,000 more accounts than the whole of 2019, VSD said.

Positive performance of global stock markets, especially the U.S.’ which saw its best week since August, will also help the domestic market, BSC Securities added.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s biggest caps added 0.04 percent, with 12 tickers gaining and 16 losing.

Topping gains were stocks of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets. CTG of VietinBank surged 5.2 percent, BID of BIDV rose 1.5 percent and VCB of Vietcombank grew 1.3 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup and VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes, the biggest and third biggest capped stocks on the VN30, also added 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Other major gainers included MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, up 3.1 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, up 0.9 percent, and VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air with 0.6 percent.

In the opposite direction, SAB of major brewer Sabeco topped losses with 2.5 percent, followed by SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar with 2.1 percent, and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail with 2 percent.

In the red were several stocks from real estate and private banking sector. In real estate TCH of Hoang Huy Group shed 1.9 percent, KDH of Khang Dien House 0.6 percent, and NVL of Novaland with 0.2 percent.

Of private banks, STB of Sacombank dropped 1.8 percent, TCB of Techcombank 0.7 percent, HDB of HDBank 0.6 percent and VPB of VPBank kept its opening price.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, shed 0.74 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market was down 0.84 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the 13th consecutive session to the tune of over VND390 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were MSN of Masan Group and CTG of VietinBank.