Gains narrow on VN-Index’s sixth straight session in green

Although gains have slowed down from 1.11 percent on Wednesday and 0.27 percent on Thursday, total trading volume on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was still at its highest levels this year, reaching VND9.28 trillion ($400 million).

Despite the VN-Index having closed up, the HoSE itself was predominantly red, with 235 stocks losing and 170 gaining.

At the beginning of the session, brokerage BVSC had said in a report that the market will likely slow down, facing corrective pressure near the resistance level of 945 points in the next few sessions after having gained in the last five sessions.

The VN-Index had in fact fallen into the red in the morning session, but buy orders on the VN30 basket of the market’s 30 largest caps pulled the market back into the green in the afternoon. The VN30-Index this session added 0.27 percent, with 13 stocks gaining and 16 losing.

Topping gains this session was PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry, up 4.8 percent, followed by FPT of IT services giant FPT, with 3.9 percent.

Banking sector stocks saw mixed results this session. Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, CTG was the outperformer having closed up 3.9 percent, while VCB of Vietcombank shed 0.5 percent, and BID of BIDV edged down 0.1 percent. MBB of state-owned midsized Military Bank grew 1.4 percent.

Of private banks, VPB of VPBank and HDB of HDBank gained 2.3 percetn and 0.8 percent respectively, EIB of Eximbank lost 1.4 percent, TCB of Techcombank shed 0.9 percent, and STB of Sacombank fell 0.7 percent.

Oil and gas stocks all performed positively, with POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power adding 1.5 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas up 0.5 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex gaining 0.3 percent.

In the opposite direction ROS of construction firm FLC Faros topped losses with 2.2 percent, followed by MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, with 1.4 percent. MSN’s loss this session came after nine consecutive gaining sessions, which saw the ticker rise from VND54,100 a share to VND81,100 a share, or 50 percent.

Other major losing tickers included VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, down 0.9 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 0.9 percent, and SAB of major brewer Sabeco, with 0.8 percent.

Notably, VHM of Vinhomes, KDH of Khang Dien House, and NVL of Novaland, all real estate developers, were all in the red to the magnitude of 0.6 percent, 0.8 percent, and 0.2 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, edged up 0.11 percent, and UPCoM-Index for stocks on Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.58 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers to the tune of over VND425 billion on all three bourses, with selling pressure mostly on MSN of Masan Group and CTG of VietinBank.