A positive performance by blue chips helped the VN-Index stave offfurther declines and close essentially unchanged on April 6 at 457.20points. However, the volume of trades on the HCM Stock Exchangecontinued to be meagre at 23.3 million shares, worth a total of nearly632 billion VND (30 million USD).
Blue chips gained anaverage of 0.23 percent, with software producer FPT gaining 4.8 percenton the day after the company became a member of Facebook's preferreddeveloper consultant programme under a contract inked in late March.Under the deal, the FPT will help Facebook promote its marketing andadvertising in Vietnam .
Among other blue chipsgaining on April 6 were insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), up 2.1 percent;Phu My Fertilisers (DPM), up 2 percent; financial conglomerate OceanGroup (OGC), up 1.6 percent; and property developer Vincom (VIC), up 0.8percent. Banking stocks also performed well, with two of four listedstocks – Eximbank (EIB) and VietinBank (CTG) – rallying.
Foreign investors also hit a four-month record in net-buy value on April6. They picked up 2.6 million shares worth a net of 204.5 billion VND.The record was partly attributed to heavy negotiated buys in shares ofdairy producer Vinamilk.
Vinamilk officially listed 3.5million Employee Stock Ownership Plan shares on the HCM Citymarket on April 1, which reduced the foreign ownership rate in thecompany from 46 to 45.5 percent. This cleared the way for foreigninvestors to acquire additional shares up to 46 percent ownership in thecompany. The new shares will begin trading openly on the bourse onApril 8.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index managed a gain of about half a percent to close at 90.56. Volume rose 8.8 percent from April 4's session, with 22.3 million shares changing hands with the value of trades of 323.6 billion VND (15.4 million USD)./.