Banks, property boost VN Index

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Shares advanced for a fourth session on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange thanks to the advancement of banks, property developers and other large-cap stocks.

The benchmark VN Index added 1.10 percent to close at 859.70 points on November 8. It has gained total 3.2 percent in the last four sessions.

The benchmark index also hit its highest level since February 2008.

More than 171.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth roughly 5.1 trillion VND (226.5 million USD).

The trading figures were down about 70 percent in volume and 75 percent in value compared to numbers on November 7.

Trading condition was balanced, with 144 gaining stocks, 125 declining ones and 53 shares closing flat.

Shares of real estate firms and banks played the main role in driving the market up on November 8.

Five of the seven listed banks on the southern exchange advanced, including Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietcombank.

Those five bank stocks rose between 1.8 percent and 4.2 percent.

The property development sector was boosted by Vingroup, which jumped 5.6 percent, extending its rally for a ninth session with total growth of 18.4 percent.

Other real estate shares that made gains included Dat Xanh Real Estate Service and Construction and Phat Dat Real Estate Development.

Large-cap stocks also performed well as the VN30 Index that contains the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation and trading liquidity gained 0.89 percent to 853.57 points.

Some gainers in the VN30 basket were IT group FPT Corp, PetroVietnam Gas, dairy producer Vinamilk and digital retailer Mobile World.

A strong increase of the VN Index with high trading liquidity proved much of investors’ attention was on large-cap stocks, Saigon-Hanoi Securities Company (SHS) said in its daily report.

Given the fact that the number of gaining stocks was slightly bigger than that of declining ones, the cash flow began being diverged and investors were withdrawing from mid-cap and small-cap stocks, leaving heavy selling pressure on those stocks, to shift their focus on the large-cap group, the brokerage company said.

Pressure of profit-taking is likely to increase today, especially after the VN Index was near the level of 860 points, SHS said. “However, we remain confident that the benchmark index will continue to rise."

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index increased by 0.87 percent to end at 105.74 points. It fell 0.25 percent on November 8. More than 44 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth 516.5 billion VND (22.7 million USD).-VNA