VN Index finishes almost unchanged

Hanoi (VNA) - The VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose slightly on March 8 as investor confidence remained low on a lack of business news.

Vietnam’s benchmark index closed the March 8 session at 716.6 points, nearly unchanged from the ending point of 716.54 points on the previous session.

The March 8 session’s slight increase also helped the VN Index extend gains for a fourth day with total growth of 1.3 percent.

Market liquidity declined from March 7’s figure with more than 175.6 million shares traded, worth 3.67 trillion VND (163 million USD).

Investor confidence remained low as the stock market was short of business and economic news positive enough to bolster investors’ sentiment, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its report.

Additionally, the decline of the VN Index for most of yesterday’s session came from the fall of stocks that had gained significantly on the previous trading days, BSC added.

Faros Construction Corp (ROS) was down 0.6 percent, marking its first decline after surging nearly 67 percent since December 13, 2016.

Vietjet Aviation JSC (VJC) dropped 1.9 percent. VJC has fallen 5.4 percent in the last two sessions after rising 27 percent since being listed on February 28.

Property firm Vingroup (VIC) fell 0.8 percent from a three-day increase of 1.7 percent.

The two large-cap energy companies on the southern bourse, PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD), saw their share values decline following the decrease of crude oil prices.

On the opposite side, banks and food-beverage producers helped the benchmark index finished the day in positive territory.

All six listed banks on the southern bourse gained, with Eximbank (EIB) the best performer and MBBank (MBB) and Sacombank (STB) advancing 1.1 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

The food-beverage sector was driven up by dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), which added 0.5 percent after one of its institutional shareholder, the Thai dairy producer F&N Dairy Investments Pte Ltd registered to purchase more than 21.7 million of Vinamilk’s shares between March 10 and April 7.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index rose 1 percent to end at 87.53 points. The northern market index increased by a total 1.1 percent in the last two sessions.

More than 51.7 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth 667.5 billion VND.-VNA