Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares advanced on strong investor interest in large-cap stocks but declining liquidity signaled further volatility during the last week of the year.
The benchmark VN Index gained 0.63 percent to close at 958.31 points. The southern market index rose total 1.83 percent last week.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched up 0.18 percent to end at 113.23 points following weekly growth of 1.28 percent.
More than 215.4 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth 5.14 trillion VND (228.4 million USD), down 11 percent in volume and 3.6 percent in value compared to last week’s average daily trading figures.
The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation and has a big impact on market movement, was up 0.36 percent to 949.28 points.
The large-cap group indicator was driven by strong growth of brewer Sabeco (SAB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), property developer Vingroup (VIC), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), petrol dealer Petrolimex (PLX) and Vietcombank (VCB).
BVH, SAB and VIC were the three blue chips that achieved the highest growth rates, which were 6.2 percent, 5.4 percent and 3.2 percent.
The strong increase of Vingroup shares also pulled Coteccons Construction Corporation (CTD) – Vingroup’s key building contractor for its real estate projects – up 2.2 percent.
Other gainers in the VN30 Index included PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), FLC Faros Construction Corp (ROS) and IT conglomerate FPT Corp (FPT).
According to Saigon-Hanoi Securities Company (SHS), large-cap stocks were still the most important factor driving the VN Index up, however, there may not be a strong increase for Vietnam’s benchmark index in the next session.
SHS said in its daily report that there was strong divergence among large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket, proved by the fact that losing stocks dominated the blue-chip index while investors continued to withdraw from Mid-cap and Small-cap indices, making stocks in the two groups suffer.
“Declining liquidity with just over 215.4 million shares being traded also showed investors’ tendency to sell more, stand by and stay quiet during the year-end period,” SHS noted.
Foreign investors had a quiet trading day, posting a net sell value of more than 75 billion VND on the two local exchanges. They recorded a net buy value of 226.7 billion VND on December 22.
The Hanoi-based brokerage firm forecast that the VN Index on Tuesday may increase slightly to the resistance range of 960-963 points.-VNA
VNA
