HÀ NỘI — Shares were volatile on the two local exchanges yesterday with lower trading liquidity as investors worried over the potential economic policies from US president-elect Donald Trump.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.2 per cent to close at 679.2 points, extending a two-day increase of 1.3 per cent.

On the opposite side, the HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was choppy and fell 0.2 per cent to 81.19 points.

Investors were hesitant to trade yesterday as they worried about uncertain economic policies issued by the new US president that could impact the Vietnamese economy, BIDV Securities said in a note.

Real estate and construction companies were the strongest gainers yesterday, driven by Vingroup JSC (VIC), FLC Group (FLC) and Faros Construction Corp (ROS).

FLC jumped 3.9 per cent after the group yesterday announced its pre-tax profit for the past ten months was VNĐ1.2 trillion (US$53.3 million), reaching the company’s projected profit for this year.

ROS surged 7 per cent to soar 14.4 per cent in the last two sessions. VIC gained 2.8 per cent to increase 3.5 per cent during the same period.

Owning more than 724 million shares of Vingroup, the group’s chairman Phạm Nhật Vượng remained the richest on Việt Nam’s stock market with total asset value of nearly VNĐ31.86 trillion.

The gains in these three stocks created a race between Vingroup’s chairman, Phạm Nhật Vượng, and Trịnh Văn Quyết, who owns both FLC Group and Faros Construction Corp.

At the end of the day, Vượng remained the richest on Việt Nam’s stock market with total asset value reached nearly VNĐ31.86 trillion, while Quyết was still second richest with total asset value of VNĐ31.15 trillion.

Significant gains were also seen in the stocks of natural rubber companies and coal mining businesses as both rubber and coal prices set one-year highs during the sessions, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in a note.

Those stocks included Phước Hòa Rubber JSC (PHR), Đồng Phú Rubber JSC (DPR), Vinacomin Núi Béo JSC (NBC) and Vinacomin Hà Tu Coal JSC (THT).

Finance-banking shares struggled yesterday. Of the nine listed banks, none of the large-cap bank stocks made gains.

Securities firms and insurance companies also performed poorly, dragged down leading stocks such as insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Bảo Việt Securities Corp (BVS), HCM Securities Corp (HCM) and Sài Gòn Securities Inc (SSI).

Liquidity continued to slide with more than 156 million shares exchanged, worth VNĐ2.2 trillion. The figures were down nearly 15 per cent in value and 6.9 per cent in volume. — VNS