VN-Index edges up after two losing sessions

By Hung Le   July 21, 2020 | 02:31 am PT
VN-Index edges up after two losing sessions
An investor looks at stock prices on a laptop at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.
The VN-Index added 0.03 percent to 861.69 points Tuesday, with blue-chips driving most of the market’s gains.

Interchanging buying and selling pressure throughout the day caused the benchmark VN-Index to fluctuate within a 4 point-band above and below its opening 861.40 points, before closing at 0.29 points above this level.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 196 stocks lose and 164 gain despite ending in the green this session.

Total transaction volume fell slightly over the previous session to VND4.58 trillion ($197.39 million), higher than the average VND4.3 trillion ($185.35 million) per session so far this month. Of this, 46.5 percent were related to VN30, a basket for the 30 highest capped stocks on the HoSE.

The VN30-Index for this basket rose 0.17 percent, with 15 tickers gaining and 10 losing.

Topping gains this session was CTD of construction giant Coteccons, climbing 1.9 percent. Coteccons had just released its consolidated financial statements for the first six months on Monday, which stated that although its revenue fell 31.4 percent year-on-year, post-tax profits surged 28 percent.

According to Coteccons, the rise in post-tax profits was primarily a result of poor performance in the second quarter of 2019, when some projects were delayed, leading to increased fixed costs for the business and lower profitability.

Next came FPT of IT services giant FPT, NVL of real estate developer Novaland, REE of appliances maker Refrigerated Electrical Engineering and VJC of budget carrier VietJet Air, all gaining 0.8 percent.

State-owned banks were some of the better performers this session. MBB of mid-sized Military Bank climbed 0.6 percent. Of Vietnam’s three biggest lenders by assets, VCB of Vietcombank added 0.4 percent and CTG of VietinBank, 0.2 percent, while BID of BIDV kept its opening price.

STB of Sacombank and VPB of VPBank were two private banks in the green this session, rising 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s largest cap, kept its opening price this session. VRE of its retail arm Vincom Retail rose 0.4 percent, while VHM of its real estate subsidiary fell 0.5 percent.

Leading losses this session was SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., down 1.3 percent, followed by PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, 1.1 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, 0.8 percent.

Other major tickers losing in this session included HDB of private HDBank, down 0.7 percent and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, down 0.5 percent. SAB of major brewer Sabeco and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power both dropped 0.4 percent.

HoSE announced Tuesday that it will update the VN30 to include KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House and TCH of truck dealer Hoang Huy Group, which are set to replace BVH of Bao Viet Group and CTD of Coteccons.

HoSE conducts a review of the VN30 every six months to include stocks that best fit their criteria of blue chips, which includes metrics such as market capitalization, average trading volume, and free-float ratio.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, kept its opening price; and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 0.12 percent.

Foreign investors turned net sellers on all three bourses to the tune of VND320 billion ($13.79 million), with selling pressure mostly on VHM of Vinhomes and HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, which added 0.4 percent this session.

 
 
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