Market volatile despite recovery

Market volatile despite recovery

Investors in a trading session at the Hà Nội Stock Exchange. — Photo tbck.vn

HÀ NỘI — Financial stocks’ strong recovery lifted both local exchanges on Thursday, but the market’s short-term prospects remained gloomy following the outflow of money.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose  一. 二 四 per cent to close at  九 三 五. 八 五 points, rebounding from its 0. 三 一 per cent loss on Wednesday.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange advanced 0. 九 二 per cent to end at  一 一 一. 四 七 points. The northern market index also bounced back from a four-day decline of  三. 五 per cent.

More than  二 一 七. 四 million shares were traded on both local exchanges, worth VNĐ 四. 六 七 trillion (US$ 二0 七. 五 million).

Trading figures on Thursday posted an increase of  一. 一 per cent in volume and a slight drop in value compared to the previous session.

Market trading condition was positive as the number of gaining stocks was almost double that of losing stocks,  三0 六 to  一 五 七, while  一 一 一 others were unchanged.

Of all  二0 sectors, financial stocks – led by banks and securities firms – were the best performers in the market. There was also growth among food and beverage producers, property developers and building contractors.

Eight of the  一0 bank stocks on both local exchanges advanced, lifting the banking sector index by  三. 一 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Among them, Vietinbank (CTG) posted the highest growth rate of  五. 五 per cent, followed by Sacombank (STB), MBBank (MBB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

Bank stocks had performed poorly in the past two weeks. CTG had lost  一 四. 五 per cent since it touched its record high of VNĐ 二 四, 四00 on November  三0 while VCB had declined by  九. 三 per cent from its all-time peak of VNĐ 四 八, 五00.

The best performers among securities shares were Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS), FPT Securities (FTS), Viet Dragon Securities (VDS) and VNDirect Securities (VND).

Other gaining stocks included digital retailer Mobile World (MWG), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), food and beverage Masan (MSN), marble producer Vicostone (VCS) and road contractor Tasco JSC (HUT).

Energy firms and Việt Nam’s largest brewer Sabeco shares were among those that suffered from profit-taking.

PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) lost 0. 九 per cent each, while PetroVietnam Coating (PVB) fell  一. 二 per cent.

Shares of brewer Sabeco (SAB) dropped  一. 六 per cent after having gained a total of  七. 二 per cent in the previous two sessions, indicating that investors were doubtful about Thai Beverage’s interest in buying the company’s stake at its upcoming share sale, Viet Dragon Securities (VDSC) said in a note.

In general, Thursday’s recovery was not enough to confirm the stock market has returned to its upward trend, as a significant amount of money was being drawn out of the market on margin calls, confirmed by the modest trading liquidity on Thursday, VDSC said.

“It means the investment flow that had continuously helped the benchmark VN Index set up its fresh  一0-year highs will not return in the near future during the year-end period,” the note said. — VNS