VN-Index surges with blue chips leading gains

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 302 tickers rise and just 84 lose. Total trading volume fell 17 percent over the previous session to VND4.96 trillion ($214 million).

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s 30 largest capped tickers outperformed the general market, gaining 0.95 percent, unlike the previous three sessions. Friday’s session saw 25 gainers in the basket, and only 2 losers.

However, investors were still focusing more on stocks outside the VN30, with 57.5 percent of total trading volume attributed to them. Usually, non-blue chips account for less than 50 percent of a day’s trades.

Analysts have observed that because some individual businesses are still posting positive growth amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam, investors are shifting their money to smaller caps in search of new opportunities, depending on their interpretation of companies’ second quarter financial reports and short-term business plans.

Banking tickers dominated gains on the VN30 this session. CTG of state-owned VietinBank led with 4.3 percent, followed by STB of private Sacombank and VPB of private VPBank, up 3.8 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.

BID of state-owned giant BIDV, TCB of private Techcombank and MBB of state-owned mid-sized Military Bank gained 1.8 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

Other major gainers included KDH of real estate developer Khang Dien House and SSI of top brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., both climbing 2.4 percent; while GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas and SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar both went up 1.4 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, the stock market’s biggest cap, edged up 0.1 percent this session. VRE of its retail arm Vincom Retail added 0.6 percent, but VHM of its real estate subsidiary Vinhomes slumped 0.6 percent.

The only other losing ticker on the VN30 this session was VCB of Vietcombank, which shed 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and smaller-caps, surged 1.2 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.26 percent.

The UPCoM, in particular, has been gaining steadily, by small margins of less than 1 percent, for all but one session in August so far.

Foreign investors were net sellers again to the extent of VND292 billion ($12.57 million) on all three bourses, with selling pressure mostly on non-VN30 stocks.

The most net bought stocks this session were also non-blue chips. Prior to this week, foreign investors had almost always transacted primarily in VN30 stocks.