Shares cement pre-holiday gains

HA NOI — The market built on its pre-holiday gains yesterday, with the VN-Index rising an additional 1.58 per cent to 466 points.

The volume of trades on the HCM City Stock Exchange also continued to revive, increasing by nearly 18 per cent from last Wednesday's session to 55.1 million shares, with a value of VND1.5 trillion (US$76.9 million).

Profit-taking increased at mid-session, causing the Index to recede from a high point of 470 during the session, said Dinh Thi My Hanh, a market analyst with a Ha Noi-based securities firm.

"However, purchasing power was maintained throughout the day," Hanh said.

Banking stocks performed well despite unfavourable news late last week, including Fitch's downgrading of Vietcombank and Asia Commercial Bank and the decline in Sacombank's net profit following an audit of its financial statements.

Sacombank (STB) shares still rose 1.85 per cent on the day, while Eximbank (EIB) gained an even more impressive 4.17 per cent. Vietcombank (VCB), meanwhile, declined by 1.04 per cent.

Foreign investors were net buyers of 2.2 million shares on the HCM City market, worth a net of VND70.6 billion ($3.6 million).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 3.9 per cent over last Wednesday's close to end the session at 136.8 points. Volume on the northern bourse receded by 2.8 per cent, however, to just 36.3 million shares, worth an anaemic VND880.5 billion ($45.1 million).

"The drop in volume is not worrying since sellers continue to hold onto stocks waiting for higher prices," Hanh said.

Foreign investors were net sellers on the Ha Noi exchange by a volume of only 20,000 shares, worth a net of just VND1.3 billion.

Pham Thanh Thai Linh, head of analysis for Bao Viet Securities Co, said that capital inflow this month would be carefully directed towards fundamental investments and not as random as in the previous period, thanks to the more settled state of the economy.

A survey by Bao Viet Securities also found that about 60 listed firms were intending to spend about VND7 trillion ($359 million) on share buybacks in the near future, Linh said.

Linh pointed to three sectors for investment this month with the highest potential – real estate, consumer goods and industrial services. — VNS