VN-Index shoots straight up just before session-end

The VN-Index rose 13.29 points over the course of the day, but its final 5 points came in the final 15 minutes of trading, when at-the-close (ATC) orders of over 3 million shares were executed.

Nearly 1.7 million of these were put-through buy orders of VIC, which belongs to private conglomerate Vingroup, the largest capped stock on HoSE. VIC closed at VND97,300 ($4.2) per share, which means the transactions were worth around VND165.41 billion ($7.09 million).

There was no major news from the conglomerate this session, but Vingroup had announced Thursday that it was planning to invest VND3.4 trillion ($145.77 million) in an automobile parts production complex in northern Quang Ninh province, which could begin operations in 2022.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, 198 stocks rose and 103 fell.

Total trading volume surged nearly 50 percent over the previous session, reaching above average levels again at VND6.17 trillion ($264.52 million).

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest capped stocks rose 1.41 percent, with 22 stocks rising and 4 falling.

VIC led gains in this basket, hitting its ceiling price of 6.9 percent. Being the largest capped stock on HoSE, VIC’s gains contributed 4.71 points to the VN-Index, according to data from securities firm VNDIRECT.

The ticker was followed by STB of private lender Sacombank, up 4.4 percent, and BVH of insurance giant Bao Viet Group, up 3.1 percent.

Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets were some of the biggest gainers, with BID of BIDV rising 2.3 percent, CTG of VietinBank 2 percent, and VCB of Vietcombank 0.5 percent. MBB of state-owned mid-sized lender Military Bank also added 1.2 percent.

Private banking stocks were also all in the green. VPB of VPBank gained 2.2 percent, TCB of Techcombank 1.5 percent, HDB of HDBank 0.9 percent and EIB of Eximbank 0.8 percent.

Other gainers this session were HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, up 2.1 percent, SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., up 2 percent, and NVL of real estate developer Novaland, up 1.7 percent.

In the opposite direction, SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar topped losses with 1.7 percent, followed by PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex, with 1.5 percent.

VJC of budget carrier Vietjet shed 0.9 percent, and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk edged down 0.2 percent.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, surged 2.32 percent this session, and the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 1.02 percent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers to the tune of VND50 billion ($2.14 million) on all three bourses, with buying pressure mostly on VNM of Vinamilk and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, which kept its opening price.