VN-Index sees biggest single-session gain in three months

Movements on Vietnam’s benchmark index mirrored the growth of most major Asian-Pacific stock markets and Wall Street futures reacting to U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’s victory in the general election.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of green with 318 stocks gaining and 177 falling. 15 of them rose to their ceiling prices, the highest they can go in a trading session.

Total trading volume improved nearly 15 percent over the previous session to VND7.9 trillion ($340.71 million), nearly on par with last month’s average trading of between VND8-9 trillion per session.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 biggest capped stocks climbed 1.61 percent, and soaked up roughly 50 percent of cash flow. In this basket, 24 stocks were in the green and just two in the red.

The highlight of the VN30 this session was food and banking stocks. MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group topped gains with 6.3 percent. The stock had gained in 15 out of its last 20 sessions, movements which analysts believe, among other factors, is partly a long-term pullback from steep losses suffered when it carried out a major merger deal with private conglomerate Vingroup late last year, taking on the latter’s Vinmart retail chain.

At that time, Vinmart was making major losses, and although the deal was expected to bring long-term benefits to Masan Group’s distribution system, investors had expected short-term repercussions’ to Masan’s bottom line. Vinmart had endured losses for six straight years after breaking into a very competitive market.

MSN was followed by SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, up 5 percent, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 3.6 percent, and VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, up 3 percent.

The next best performers were stocks of private lenders. STB of Sacombank rose 2.6 percent, TCB of Techcombank 2.1 percent, VPB of VPBank 1.5 percent and HDB of HDBank 1.4 percent. EIB of Eximbank kept its opening price.

Of state-owned banks, Vietnam’s three biggest by total assets, CTG of VietinBank rose 2.3 percent, VCB of Vietcombank 0.6 percent, and BID of BIDV 0.5 percent.

All oil and gas stocks closed in the green. POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power was up 2.8 percent, GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, 0.8 percent, and PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex added 0.4 percent.

The only two tickers in red were SAB of major brewer Sabeco, down 0.2 percent, and NVL of real estate developer Novaland, down 1 percent.

The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-caps, was up 1.65 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market gained 0.71 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers to the tune of over VND200 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were MSN of Masan Group and HPG of Hoa Phat Group.

As of 2:42 p.m., Dow futures were up 377 points, or about 1.3 percent; the S&P 500 (SPX) futures were up around 1.5 percent; and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were up 2 percent.

In the Asia-Pacific region, China’s Shanghai Composite rose 1.86 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.18 percent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 2.12 percent, and Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries 1.89 percent.