VN-Index posts second straight gaining session

The two gaining sessions followed a four session losing streak, which saw Vietnam’s benchmark index fall from 1,008.35 points last Wednesday to 976.35 points on Monday.

Despite this small rise, the price board at the Ho Chi Minh City Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based from, was still mostly covered in red, with 139 stocks gaining and 172 stocks losing.

The VN30, which represents Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks, fell 0.27 percent. In this basket, seven stocks gained and 21 stocks lost.

The biggest losing blue-chip this session was PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry, down 1 percent; followed by VNM of Vietnam’s biggest dairy producer Vinamilk, down 0.9 percent; and HDB of HDBank, a mid-sized private lender in Vietnam, which fell 0.8 percent.

MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group and CTD of construction giant Coteccons fell 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

VIC shares of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup rose 0.4 percent, although VHM shares of its real estate arm Vinhomes and VRE shares of its retail arm Vincom Retail lost about 0.3 percent and 0.15 percent respectively.

Foreign investors were net buyers this session, with a net purchase of VND72.99 billion ($3.15 million) worth of shares on HoSE. Buying power was mostly focused on blue-chip stocks, such as HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, BID of lender BIDV, and VRE of Vincom Retail.

The VN-Index had started off strong in the morning session, sometimes peaking at over 982 points, but reversed in the afternoon due to strong selling pressure.

Liquidity of order-matched transactions was only VND2.5 trillion ($107.76 million), much lower than the previous sessions which mostly hovered above VND3 trillion ($129.29 million), evincing the cautious mentality of investors, according to analysts.

The HNX-Index for shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse, fell 0.27 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 0.05 percent.