Local stocks up for a third day hinh anh 1Investors at the trading centre of Saigon Securities’ branch in Hanoi (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) -  Vietnam’s stock market advanced for a third day on the two local exchanges on December 16, driven by domestic purchases of local shares on the day foreign funds finished their portfolio review.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.4 percent to close at 675.16 points. The southern market index has gained 3 percent in the last three sessions.

The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange added 1.1 percent to end at 79.71 points, up total 2.3 percent after three trading days.

Compared to the previous trading week, the VN Index was 1.8 percent higher while the HNX Index inched up 0.1 percent.

More than 210.5 million shares were exchanged on the two local bourses, worth 3.73 trillion VND (165.7 million USD).

Market trading liquidity increased from the previous day’s numbers with an increase of around 24 percent in both trading volume and value.

Sacombank (STB) was the most active stock with nearly 21 million of its shares being traded. STB closed up 2.5 percent.

Strong purchases by domestic investors were the major factor that lifted the stock market after they managed to absorb the shares sold by foreign investors when exchange-traded funds (ETFs) completed reviewing their portfolios for this year. Meanwhile, foreign investors made a net sell value of nearly 280 billion VND.

The most important factor for strong purchasing from domestic investors was their high confidence after the US central bank on late December 14 decided to raise its short-term rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.5 percent, marking the first rate hike since December 2015.

“The Fed’s decision had little impact on the stock market,” Bao Viet Securities Corp (BVSC) said in a note. “Global markets, before and after the Fed meeting, have had little changed, proving that investors are quite calm on the decision.”

In Vietnam’s stock market, investors have priced in the negative impact of the US rate hike on the exchange between the Vietnamese dong and the dollar, BVSC said.

“The rate hike has cleared investors’ worry and the movement of the local stock market in the next three months will depend on the country’s macro-economic indicators such as GDP growth, inflation, forex rates and companies’ fourth-quarter performances.” — VNA

VNA