VN-Index surges to one-month peak

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was predominantly green with 228 tickers gaining and 140 losing.

Trading volume on the exchange, home to mid- and large-caps, skyrocketed to yet another monthly high at VND7.03 trillion ($302 million), almost double that of last month’s average of VND4.2 trillion ($180 million). The liquidity was double that of the previous session.

The HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, added 1.58 percent, while UPCoM-Index for stocks on Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 1.03 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers on all three exchanges to the tune of VND62 billion ($2.66 million), ending a streak of 26 consecutive net selling sessions.

Foreign investor net sell, excluding major M&A deals, had mostly ranged between VND300 billion ($12.87 million) and VND700 billion ($30 million) in these sessions, but had slowed down to around VND130 billion ($5.58 million) in the three sessions preceding this one.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks surged 2.73 percent this session, with 25 gaining and four losing, with seven stocks gaining over 4 percent.

Three of the five biggest gainers this session belonged to private mid-sized banks. TCB of Techcombank hit ceiling price, at 6.8 percent, VPB of VPBank surged 6.5 percent, and HDB of HDBank 5.2 percent.

Techcombank on Wednesday had just released its first quarter financial reports, which saw the lender’s revenue rose 37.3 percent year-on-year, marking 18 consecutive quarters of growth, despite the adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

VCB of Vietcombank, one of three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, closed 5.5 percent up, while CTG of VietinBank and BID of BIDV, the other two, added 2.5 percent and 1.2 percent.

VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes rose 4.9 percent, while VRE of sister retail corporation Vincom Retail added 2 percent, and VIC of parent corporation and Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup rose 1.6 percent.

Other major gainers this session included PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex and VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, both gaining 4.2 percent, MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, up 3.7 percent, and SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., with 2.3 percent.

In the opposite direction, CTD of construction giant Coteccons topped losses with 2.2 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power shed 1 percent, while HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group and ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros both slumped 0.8 percent.

According to brokerage VNDIRECT, foreign buying pressure was mostly focused on VCB, VNM, VHM, VPB and PLX this session. VNM is the ticker of major dairy firm Vinamilk, which added 1.5 percent.

According to Bao Viet Securities (BVSC), the 800-820 point marks will be key psychological resistance levels for the market to head in either direction in the near future.

"If this threshold is surpassed, the VN-Index may very well enter a new gaining phase which could see it rise to 860-880 points. The status of foreign net transaction will be a major influence on market sentiment, but growth could slow down as businesses adjust plans to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic," BVSC said in its latest report.