VN-Index nudged up as foreign investors end net selling streak

Foreign investors net bought VND30 billion ($1.28 million) worth of stocks on all three of Vietnam’s bourses this session, with buying pressure focused on blue chips of state corporations in banking and oil and gas.

According to data analysts FiinTrade, with the market plunging in recent weeks, many organizations are taking the opportunity to restructure their portfolios, and buy stocks with good fundamentals at low prices. Some of the stocks have fallen to levels they were trading at during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Gains this session continued to be supported by the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s (HoSE) biggest capped stocks as 241 tickers lost and 105 gained on the bourse, on which the VN-Index is based.

The VN30-Index for HoSE’s 30 biggest caps lost 0.69 percent, with 18 losing tickers and 12 gaining. However, because the gainers had more market cap than the losers, the VN-Index still closed in the green.

SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar once again topped gains with 6.7 percent, but VIC stocks of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, which gained 6.1 percent, had a much bigger impact on the VN-Index as the latter was the bourses’ biggest capped ticker.

VIC alone contributed 4.65 points to the VN-Index, higher than the combined impact of the ten biggest losing stocks on HoSE this session, which took 2.71 points from the index, according to data from brokerage firm VNDIRECT.

It was followed by SAB of Sabeco, the country’s biggest brewer, which surged 3.7 percent. VCB of Vietcombank and CTG of VietinBank, two of Vietnam’s biggest state-owned lenders by assets, rose 1.4 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Other major gainers included VRE of Vincom Retail, Vingroups retail subsidiary, up 2 percent, and EIB of Eximbank, the only private bank to have closed in the green, up 1.9 percent.

In the opposite direction, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World and HDB of private mid-sized lender HDBank led losses at 6.9 percent each.

They were followed by ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros, one of the VN30’s most volatile stocks, with 5.8 percent.

Among those in the red were two tickers of state-owned banks, and three others of private banks. STB of private Sacombank fell the most, with 5.6 percent, followed by MBB of state-owned Military Bank, 3 percent, and TCB of private Techcombank, 0.6 percent.

Other major losers this session included SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., shedding 5.6 percent, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 4.4 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, 3.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and midcap stocks, shed 0.47 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies slipped 0.37 percent.