HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares rallied on Monday but the uptrend weakened towards the closing minutes due to selling pressure in a number of blue-chips, especially during the ATC session.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) gained 1.06 per cent to settle at 1114.53 points, falling from the intraday high of 1116.2 points. It had gained 2.49 per cent to close at 1,102.85 points last Friday.

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) dropped 0.06 points to end at 126.18 points. The index rose 1.24 per cent to end at 126.24 points on Friday.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) inched up 0.31 per cent to finish at 59.74 points. It inched 0.43 per cent to finish at 59.56 points on Friday.

More than 336.03 million shares were traded on the three local exchanges, worth VNĐ9.6 trillion (US$420.7 million).

Market trading conditions turned negative on Monday, with 369 declining stocks against 291 gainers, while 781 other stocks remained unchanged.

As many as 17 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation advanced in the VN30 Index.

The VN30 Index was up 0.89 per cent to 1.099,71 points, with more than 100.6 million shares exchanged, worth VNĐD4.67 trillion.

Financial-banking and oil stocks were the best-performing among the 20 sectors in the stock market, with the banking and energy industry indices advancing 0.69 per cent and 1.71 per cent, respectively, according to vietstock.vn.

Blue chip stocks were in strong demand and pulled up the VN-Index, as well as the VN30, especially in the ATC session, including Hòa Phát Group Joint Stock Company (HPG), up 4.55 per cent, Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VRE), moving up 6.59 per cent, Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), rising 6.76 per cent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), advancing 2.17 per cent and PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), up 2.17 per cent.

The momentum of the market slowed down at the end of the trading day as some stocks faced strong profit taking pressure such as Việt Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Phú Nhuận Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG).

Today’s market was partially driven by Việt Nam’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Some of the stocks that were expected to qualify for the ETF Portfolio in Q1 2018 sharply increased today, namely VRE and PLX. On the other side, other shares like GTN, FLC and HSG are expected to leave the holding lists of these ETFs.

Foreign Investors were net sellers of VNĐ173.61 billion on HOSE, focused on VNM (VNĐ68.9 billion), VCB (VNĐ61.8 billion) and HDB (VNĐ30.9 billion). In addition, they sold a net of VNĐ11.66 billion on the HNX.

According to Viet Dragon Securities Company (VDSC), the implication from today’s market is that capital inflows focused on very few stocks, which are big stocks such as VIC and VRE.

“The VN-Index is moving toward a fresh 11-year high but not all stocks benefit from this rally. Investors who have purchased large cap stocks in banking, real estate and some other large-cap shares in VN30 can hold for further gains,” VDSC said in its daily report.

Meanwhile, according to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the volatility in the last minutes today opens up the possibility of a downtrend in the next sessions.

“However, from our view, this decline would be negligible amid a wide divergence in the market,” it said. — VNS