VN-Index posts best gaining session in two weeks

162 stocks gained and 165 lost on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based.

Order-matched transactions plunged to VND1.88 trillion ($82 million), one of the lowest sessions this year. Liquidity generally hovered around VND2.5-3.5 trillion ($108-152 million) throughout 2019, but there were several similar low sessions in January.

Blue chips were mostly in the green with 18 stocks gaining and 9 losing in the VN30 basket of Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks. The VN30-Index rose 0.49 percent.

BID of BIDV, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned banks, led gains with 4.5 percent. The other two major state-lenders, VCB of Vietcombank and CTG of VietinBank, added 1.2 percent and 0.2 percent respectively.

The stocks of most private mid-sized lenders, save for EIB of Eximbank, rose this session, with HDB of HDBank adding 1.9 percent, TCB of Techcombank, 0.7 percent, and STB of Sacombank, 0.5 percent.

VIC shares of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s highest market cap stock, fell 0.2 percent this session, but VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes rose 0.4 percent, and VRE of Vingroup’s retail subsidiary, Vincom Retail, added 0.3 percent.

The biggest loser this session continued to be ROS shares of real estate developer FLC faros, which hit its price floor for the second consecutive session, down 7 percent.

It was followed by CTD of construction giant Coteccons, which shed 2.4 percent, and SAB of Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco, down 1.2 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of VND8.46 billion ($367,000) on HoSE, with selling pressure mostly on VIC of Vingroup and VCB of Vietcombank.

Meanwhile, HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and mid-cap stocks, and the UPCoM-Index for Unlisted Public Companies, both rose 0.27 percent this session.