Deposit rate cut boosts optimism
On October 29, the SBV decided to lower the
ceiling interest rates on Vietnamese dong deposits from six percent to
5.5 percent and on US dollar deposits from one percent to 0.75 percent.
This is the second time that the SBV has slashed regulatory interest rates this year.
According
to Dang Bao Khanh, General Director of SeABank, this decision will
likely bring investment to other channels, including the securities
market.
"The stock market will receive new capital investment
flows, though not surging, as the economy is still undergoing
difficulties," Khanh said.
Many experts also agree that the SBV
decision will have a positive impact on the Vietnamese stock markets
because stock prices usually moved in a direction opposite that of
interest rates.
At the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the benchmark VN-Index once more increased by more than 600 points, adding
a cumulative 1.58 percent during the week to close at 600.84 points.
Blue
chips recovered as the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market
value and liquidity, improved by 1.47 percent to finish at 638.78
points.
Ocean Group rebounded late last week after several declining sessions due to the arrest of its former leader.
Other
large-cap shares were actively traded, including PV Gas, Masan Group,
Bao Viet Holdings and Vietcombank, as well as Sacombank and Vietinbank.
Liquidity
improved slightly compared with that of the previous week, with daily
market volume increasing by more than eight percent to an average of 110
million shares worth 1.874 trillion VND (88.8 million USD) per session.
Foreign
investors ended their eight-week selling streak and returned as net
buyers in the HCM City market. Their net purchase value was modest but
helped ease investor pessimism.
They were responsible for a total
net purchase of more than 375 billion VND (17.8 million USD), focusing
on blue chips such as PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service, Kinh Do
Corp and Hoa Phat Group.
They remained net sellers in the Hanoi market but with a small value of just 26 billion VND (1.2 million USD).
Foreign
purchases are important to the recovery of the market, which could
decline during some sessions this week but is necessary to test the
demand and determine the trading trend of foreigners, according to
analysts at FPT Securities Company.
At the Hanoi Stock Exchange,
the HNX-Index also climbed by 1.14 percent to end at 88.03 points, but
trading volume decreased by more than 14 percent from that of the
previous week, averaging 51.4 million shares worth more than 725 billion
VND (34.4 million USD)./.