VN-Index posts highest single-day gain in 19 years

An overwhelming 330 stocks gained and just 59 lost on the HoSE, on which the VN-Index is based. Of these, 95 tickers hit their ceiling prices, the highest they can go in a trading session.

This was its biggest gain since 2001, following a 6.88 percent surge on October 10, 2001. However, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) had only five stocks listed, and the VN-Index was hovering at just over 200 points then.

Liquidity also improved significantly, with a total of VND6.45 trillion ($273.47 million) worth of shares changing hands Monday, 31 percent higher than last week’s daily trading average. Order-matched transactions accounted for 81 percent of these transactions.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 biggest caps shot up 5.16 percent. All tickers save for one gained this session, with 17 hitting their ceiling prices.

The banking sector had six stocks that achieved maximum gains of 6.8 percent to 7 percent. Three of them were state-owned lenders, BID of BDIV, CTG of VietinBank and MBB of mid-sized Military Bank, while the other three were of mid-sized private lenders – STB of Sacombank, TCB of Techcombank, and VPB of VPBank.

The other top gainers in the finance sector were BVH of insurance Bao Viet Group and SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., up 7 percent and 6.8 percent respectively.

VIC shares of Vingroup, Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate and HoSE’s largest cap, VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes, and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail, all added 6.9 percent this session.

Along with VHM, CTD of construction giant Coteccons, and ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros also closed in purple (their ceiling prices).

In retail, MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World 6.9 percent, and PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry all added 6.9 percent. Commodity producers HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group and SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar added 6.8 percent and 6.6 percent respectively.

According to data from securities firm VNDIRECT, the 10 tickers that had the biggest impact on the VN-Index this session added a total of 20.7 points to the index, led by VIC (5.54 points), VHM (3.42 points) and BID (2.51 points). The VN-Index gained 34.95 points this session.

Not reaching their price ceilings but still recording big gains were GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, up 6.5 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, 5.6 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, 0.5 percent.

Analysts said the gains of oil and gas tickers in the week’s first session were driven by a 30 percent surge in oil prices last week after the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia agreed to sit down to negotiate production cuts.

However, oil prices dipped again Monday afternoon after the parties failed to settle on a deal over the weekend, and a meeting to discuss oil output cuts initially scheduled for Monday was postponed to Thursday. As of 4:20 pm, Brent Crude had fallen by 4.24 percent to $33.18 a barrel.

On the HoSE, VJC of budget carrier VietJet Air was the only ticker that did not gain, and kept its opening price by the end of the session.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and midcap stocks, gained 5.54 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies added 2.42 percent.

Foreign investors were again net sellers on all three bourses to the tune of VND700 billion ($29.7 million). According to KB Vietnam Securities, foreign investors worldwide are pulling out of emerging stock markets on fears that the Covid-19 pandemic could cause a global economic recession.