Financial stocks help lift VN-Index

Hanoi (VNA) - Money shifted back to financial stocks on August 31 which helped the market extend gains on the HCM Stock Exchange.

The benchmark VN-Index perked up 0.53 percent to close at 782.76 points. It rose 0.6 percent on August 30.

Banks were the biggest gainers as five of seven listed lenders on the southern bourse gained value, including the ‘big four’ – Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Military Bank and BIDV, of which the latter hit the maximum daily rise of 7 percent, settling at 20,700  VND (0.91 USD) a share.

Apart from banks, big-name insurers and financial firms such as Bao Viet Holdings, Saigon Securities Inc, HCM Securities Corp and Masan Group also advanced.

In the VN30 basket (which tracks the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange), 20 stocks gained while eight dropped.

Investors were upbeat on socio-economic data in the first eight months, Tran Duc Anh, a stock analyst at Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC) wrote in a note.

Chairman of the Office of the Government Mai Tien Dung said at a regular press meeting on August 30 that the country’s GDP growth is likely to hit the target of 6.7 percent by year-end after reviewing the socio-economic statistics in August.

Major indicators including inflation, credit growth, total retail sales of goods and services, foreign direct investment, industrial production and number of newly-established enterprises were positive with a monthly uptrend.

“Despite encouraging results in the first eight months, the target of 6.7 percent remains challenging,” Anh said and maintained the previous forecast for GDP growth this year at 6.3-6.5 percent, given the first half growth of only 5.73 percent.

He said the market saw a wide divergence with the VN-Index supported by positive movement of large-cap stocks, especially bank stocks.

“The divergence will still be seen in the coming sessions and cash flows will continue to run into stocks having supportive information and good business performance such as banks, steelmakers and real estate companies,” Anh said.

Contrary to big stocks, speculative shares were under heavy selling pressure and popular speculative stocks such as FLC Group, HAI Agrochem, AMD Group Mining and Investment, and FIT Group all slumped.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.53 percent to end at 103.88 points.

Liquidity increased on August 31 with a total of 279.5 million shares worth a combined 5.1 trillion VNA (224.1 million USD) being traded on the two markets, up nearly 15 percent in volume and 24.4 percent in value compared to August 30's figures.-VNA