VN-Index ends losing streak, backed by blue-chips

Indices were mixed on Wednesday, with some large-cap stocks rebounding from the recent sell-off.

Customers shopping at Vinmart, the supermarket chain of Masan Group. The company shares surged 3.8 percent yesterday, boosting the recovery of the VN-Index. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Indices were mixed on January 19, with some large-cap stocks rebounding from the recent sell-off.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index finished the choppy session at 1,442.79 points, up 3.85 points, or 0.27 percent.

The index had lost for four consecutive sessions with shares across all sectors facing a sell-off, as investors planned to take profit before the Lunar New Year holidays.

The market's breadth was positive, but liquidity still dropped sharply compared to the previous session. On HoSE, 260 stocks rose, while 217 declined and 41 ended flat.

Meanwhile, investors poured in nearly 23 trillion VND (1 billion USD), equivalent to a trading volume of over 637.6 million shares.

The benchmark's recovery was thanks to large-cap stocks as the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a gain of 5.49 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,482.55 points.

Eighteen stocks of the VN30 basket rose, while ten declined and two stayed unchanged.

Masan Group (MSN) led the bullish trend, up 3.8 percent.

Also supporting the index's uptrend, Becamex (BCM), SSI Securities Corporation (SSI), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Vinhomes (VHM) reported positive performance, with gains of at least 0.78 percent and BCM shares even hit the biggest intraday rise of 7 percent.

Other real estate stocks like the Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC) and securities stocks like VNDirect (VND) also saw big increases, up 6.73 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

However, profit-taking pressure ahead of the Lunar New Year continued to trigger sell-offs in some pillar stocks, especially in the banking sector, such as BIDV (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sahabank (SHB) and MBBank (MBB).

Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) also witnessed another session hitting the floor price.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index edged down 11.9 points, or 2.83 percent, to 409.31 points, falling for a third straight session.

During the session, more than 101.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly 1.8 trillion VND.

On the other hand, foreign investors net sold a value of nearly 5 trillion VND on HoSE, while they net bought a small amount of 4.64 billion VND on HNX./.

VNA