Stocks up as is investor caution, too

September 06, 2017 - 09:00

Shares advanced on both local exchanges yesterday after a long weekend holiday, driven by large-cap stocks. However, trading conditions suggest rough sessions ahead for the markets.

Shares advanced on both local exchanges yesterday after a long weekend holiday, driven by large-cap stocks. However, trading conditions suggest rough sessions ahead for the markets.– Photo vietnamfinance.vn

HÀ NỘI – Shares advanced on both local exchanges yesterday after a long weekend holiday, driven by large-cap stocks. However, trading conditions suggest rough sessions ahead for the markets.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 0.45 per cent to close at 792.31 points. It had increased 2.2 per cent last week and 1.9 per cent in the previous three sessions.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange gained 0.56 per cent to end at 104.38 points, rebounding from Friday’s loss of 0.1 per cent. The northern market index finished up a total 1.1 per cent last week.

More than 202 million shares were traded on both bourses, worth VNĐ3.85 trillion (US$171.4 million).

Tuesday’s trading figures constituted an 11.2 per cent volume rise and 8.4 per cent hike in value compared to Friday.

Tuesday’s gains on both local exchanges were attributed to good performances of large-cap stocks with the VN30 Index, which tracks the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation, gaining 0.38 per cent.

Fourteen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket advanced between 0.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent, with the biggest gainers being food producer Kido Group (KDC), PetroVietnam Power Nhơn Trạch 2 (NT2), lenders Sacombank (STB) and Vietcombank (VCB), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and property developer Vingroup (VIC).

Among 20 industries in the stock market, property, banking and energy industry indices were also the three that posted good gains, which were 0.9 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively.

Beside VIC, other stocks that also made good gains in the real estate sector included Sacomreal (SCR), Quốc Cường Gia Lai JSC (QCG), Thăng Long Investment Group (TIG) and Nhà Bảy Bảy Investment Corp (NBB).

The Hà Nội-based brokerage Bảo Việt Securities (BVSC) wrote in its Tuesday report that it saw very few positive signals with the good performance and flow of money limited to large-cap stocks.

Despite the market trading liquidity improvement from Friday, it remained much lower than the average of the previous 21 sessions, reflecting weakening market demand and cautious investment sentiment, it said.

That created an imbalance as total declining stocks on both bourses outnumbered gaining ones, proving that investors were seeking profit in speculative small- and medium-cap stocks, BVSC added. – VNS

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