VN-Index continues recovery, but foreign investors net sellers

The index had surged upwards in the first 30 minutes of trading, going as high as 849.46 points before suddenly losing 6 points within the final hour of trading as a slew of sell orders on several key blue chips poured in.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, 274 tickers gained and 117 lost. Total trading volume was at its highest in the past two weeks, reaching VND4.89 trillion ($210 million).

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 0.76 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.14 percent.

Despite all three indices being in the green, foreign investors net sold VND200 billion ($8.65 million) worth of stocks on all of them. Selling pressure was mostly on VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, AGG of real estate developer An Gia Real Estate, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk.

The VN30 Index for the market’s 30 biggest caps rose 0.27 percent, with 20 tickers gaining and seven losing.

ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros topped gains with 3.5 percent, followed by POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, up 2.8 percent.

Private banks were among the better performers this session, with HDB of HDBank climbing 1.7 percent, STB of Sacombank 1.4 percent, TCB of Techcombank 1.3 percent, and VPB of VPBank, 0.5 percent.

EIB of Eximbank was the only private banking ticker in the red, down 0.3 percent.

Other major gainers this session were PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, up 1.3 percent, TCH of real estate and truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, up 1.2 percent, and SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., with 1.1 percent.

VIC of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate and HoSE’s largest capped stock, added 0.5 percent this session.

Vietnam’s state-owned banks saw mixed performances with MBB of Military Bank rising 0.9 percent, CTG of VietinBank adding 0.2 percent, BID of BIDV keeping its opening price, while VCB of Vietcombank slid 1.2 percent.

SAB of major brewer Sabeco was the biggest losing stock this session at 2.2 percent, followed by VNM of Vinamilk, with 0.9 percent, and VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, with 0.3 percent.