VN-Index rises to seven-week high

The VN-Index, which represents stocks on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), closed at 978.63 points, up 4.98 points or 0.51 percent over the previous session. The session closed with 169 gainers and 130 losers.

Bank stocks led the market with the strongest rallies, with ACB stock of private Asia Commercial Bank growing 2 percent. The group of three biggest state-owned lenders in Vietnam also recorded robust increases, with VietinBank (CTG) up 2.62 percent, Vietcombank (VCB) up 2.07 percent and BIDV (BID) up 3.24 percent.

The VN-30 Index, the basket of the highest market cap stocks, rose 0.34 percent this session, with most companies closing in the green. However, declines of 0.3 percent for both VIC shares of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup and VHM shares of Vinhomes, the two biggest market cap companies on HoSE, prevented the index from rising further.

Other blue chips, including VNM of Vietnam’s biggest diary company Vinamilk, GAS of state-owned PetroVietnam Gas JSC, and SAB of leading brewer Sabeco recorded growth of around 1 percent.

Total trading volume and value in the session was 161.66 million units worth VND3.34 trillion ($143.35 million), up 4.59 percent in volume but down 13.68 percent in value compared to the previous session. Foreign investors continued to have a net buying session with a value of nearly VND140 billion ($6 million), focusing most of their investments on blue chips.

At the end of the session, the HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange closed up 0.83 percent at 106.01 points and Upcom-Index of the Unlisted Public Companies Market increased by 0.6 percent to 56.64 points. The two floors combined account for just over 10 percent of market cap of companies trading on Vietnam’s stock exchanges.