Banks lead Vietnamese market rebound

Vietnamese shares rebounded on September 8, buoyed by large-cap companies, especially banks.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index recouped nearly 12 points, or 2.1 percent, to close September 8 session at 566.72 points. The VN-Index dropped 0.4 percent on September 7.

The market's two biggest banks, Vietcombank (VCB) and Vietinbank (CTG) jumped over 5 percent and Military Bank (MBB) climbed 4.2 percent. MBB was also the most active in HCM City with 6 million shares traded, accounting for 6.4 percent of total market volume.

"With the market lacking catalysts, big stocks are usually chosen as a safe haven," analysts at brokerage FPT Securities wrote on September 8.

Large-cap stocks were bolstered by attractive valuations, and in particular, banks were attracting investors' attention after a period of decline, FPT Securities said. The VN-Index fell 7 percent in August.

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) was the market's biggest gainer, hitting the ceiling limit of a 7 percent gain after London-based FTSE Group said it would add BID to its FTSE Vietnam Index and FTSE Vietnam All-Share Index in the third quarter.

The Vietnam All-Share Index is a broad market benchmark covering shares representing 90 percent of market capitalisation, while the Vietnam Index is a tradable index comprised of companies that have yet to come close to their foreign ownership caps.

FTSE Vietnam said it plans to buy 13.9 million USD of BID shares until September 18.

Around 6.5 million BID shares were traded in the last two sessions, higher than its 10-day average of over 2 million shares.

The overall market condition was positive as almost 60 percent of 286 stocks advanced, 25 percent declined and 15 percent closed unchanged.

Large-cap shares led the rally with 27 of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity in HCM City's market gained value.

Liquidity increased on the HCM Stock Exchange with the market volume rising 43 percent over September 7, totaling over 102 million shares but the value of trades grew slightly to just 1.74 trillion VND (77.3 million USD).

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 1.7 percent to end at 77.26 points. The trading volume there climbed 30 percent over September 7, reaching over 37 million shares, while the market value increased 20 percent to total 389 billion VND (17.3 million USD).

FLC Joint Venture Global Investment (KLF) and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) were the most active stocks with nearly 3 million shares traded on each stock.-VNA