An investor follows stock movements. — VNS Photo Đoàn Tùng

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares may gain slightly in the post-holiday period as listed firms are giving a few strong clues that could boost the market’s short-term prospects.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.57 per cent last Friday to end the last trading week at 979.64 points.

The VN-Index rose nearly 1.4 per cent in total last week, marking its first rise after having declined for two consecutive weeks.

The recovery of “Vin” stocks such as Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE) was the main driver of the stock market last week.

The three company shares gained between 3.3 per cent and 6.2 per cent in five trading days of last week.

Financial-banking stocks were mixed. Large-cap financial-banking firms such as Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and HCM City Securities Corp (HCM) almost made no changes compared to the previous week.

Meanwhile, consumer staple companies’ shares weighed on the stock market. All three large-cap firms – dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and food and beverage group Masan (MSN) – declined after one week.

Trading liquidity was a problem for the stock market as investors were unwilling to jump in the market trading due to a lack of supportive news among listed companies and the coming national holidays.

An average of nearly 154.6 million shares was traded in each session of last week on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.35 trillion (US$144 million). The figures were up slightly from the previous week.

A similar trading pattern occurred on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange as the HNX-Index increased by 0.49 per cent to end the week at 107.46 points.

The HNX-Index advanced by total 1.49 per cent last week.

According to Dương Hoàng Linh, deputy head of market analysis department at Sacombank Securities JSC (SBS), the benchmark VN-Index has moved between 965 and 990 points for the last one month with low liquidity.

“As top large-cap companies have released their first-quarter earnings reports, the market has run out of good news that could back the market up and lure short-term capital back into the market,” Linh told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

Investors seemed uninterested in taking part in the market at the moment even though “some stocks have gotten much cheaper in recent weeks,” he said.

“The market may still go horizontally and marginally after returning from the national holidays. There may be some rebounds but those comebacks won’t be upheld,” Linh added.

Declining liquidity would remain the most important factor for the Vietnamese stock market, according to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

“Friday’s gains for the two indices could only mean pullback, or technical recovery, as liquidity kept falling while technical indicators still projected further drops for the local indices,” SHS said in its weekly report.

“What we’ve seen on the derivative market with the VN30 futures expiring in May also supported the forecast as it finished Friday 13.55 points lower than the large-cap VN30-Index’s close of 890.55 points,” the company said.

“That shows investors were still thinking about a bearish market in the short run,” SHS added.

The stock market in the next two trading days and next week could move based on the trading of global stocks and international market news, SHS said.

Buy-in for May

The month of May this year wouldn’t be a time for selling, analysts said, as cheap stocks could be scooped up and consolidated.

According to Nguyễn Hoàng Việt, Vietinbank Securities Co’s market analyst, it’s time for investors to purchase stocks and hold onto them as they had sold too much in April.

“The sharp correction of the stock market will bring up opportunities for investors to own good quality large-cap stocks at very low price levels,” he said.

There would be growth for the stock market in May as shares had been pressurised too much in the last several weeks, Nguyễn Hồng Khanh, head of market analysis at Vietnam International Securities JSC, said. — VNS