A worker takes care of cows at a Vinamilk;s dairy farm. Vinamilk’s shares (VNM) gained 1.6 per cent after the information it has approved the plan of raising stakes in GTNFood (GTN) to 75 per cent. Photo baodautu.vn

HÀ NỘI – Shares ended Monday on a mixed note with the growing momentum of the market weak without clear macro domestic and foreign signals.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index edged up 0.26 per cent to close at 966.06 points.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was down 0.13 per cent to end the session at 102.36 points.

Both stock indices lost value last week.

Liquidity increased with nearly 295 million shares worth VNĐ7.1 trillion (US$319 million shares) being traded on the two markets, up 50 per cent in volume and 35 per cent in value compared to Friday.

Large caps, which often lead the market trend, diverged. Half of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (VN30) gained value but 11 lost.

The market leaders included PV Gas (GAS), Vinamilk (VNM) and brewer Sabeco (SAB) which increased by more than 1 per cent each.

Vinamilk’s shares (VNM) gained 1.6 per cent to VNĐ118,100 ($5.10) a share following the information that Việt Nam’s biggest dairy company has approved plans to raise stakes in GTNFood (GTN) to 75 per cent. By December 6, Vinamilk owns nearly 108 million GTN shares, equivalent to 43.17 per cent stake, which means it will have to buy additional 79.5 million shares.

On the dark side, slump of Masan Group (MSN) and Techcombank (TCB) dragged the market with shares decreasing between 1.5-3,2 per cent.

“The market continued to recover in a state of tension and indecision when the domestic and foreign macro signals were not really clear,” BIDV Securities Co’s analysts wrote in the daily report.

They said the price range of 950-983 points will still be the main movement area of the VN-Index.

Trần Xuân Bách, a stock analyst at Bảo Việt Securities Co, said the market needed to penetrate through the resistance zone around 970 points to confirm the recovery trend and head toward 980-985 point zone in the short term.

“We believe the market will possibly improve in the second half of December, especially after the exchange-traded funds (ETF) review session is over,” he wrote in a note.

Foreign investors ended their five-session net selling session streak on the HCM City’s exchange and closed Monday as net buyers by value with net value of nearly VNĐ58 billion. However, they remained net sellers by volume with 4.5 million shares.

The foreign sector were net sellers on the Hà Nội’s bourse with net value of more than VNĐ5 billion. – VNS