Indices witnessed mixed performance on Thursday, as the uptrend was cushioned by many large-cap stocks, however, lingering selling pressure capped gains.
The market benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended the day at 1,198.47 points, a slight increase of 4.33 points, or 0.36 per cent. It even broke over the 1,200 point-level earlier in the session.
The index surged nearly 16 points on Wednesday thanks to higher risk appetite.
But the market’s breadth was in the negative territory as 247 stocks fell, while 197 stocks inched higher. Liquidity was also lower than the previous session, of which over VND12.1 trillion (US$517.6 million) worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 530.3 million shares, was traded on the southern bourse.
The index’s upside was mainly driven by support from large-cap stocks. The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index rose 9.63 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 1,235.25 points.
In the VN30 basket, 21 stocks moved up, while seven declined and two stocks stayed flat.
Data from financial website vietstock.vn showed that Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) led the market’s bullish trend with a gain of 4.74 per cent.
Supporting the benchmark, other stocks from the manufacturing, banking and energy sectors also witnessed strong performance on Thursday, including Masan Group (MSN), Sabeco (SAB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB) and PV Gas (Gas). These stocks all advanced at least 1 per cent.
However, the index pared some gains due to persistent selling force, especially in realty stocks. Accordingly, Vinhomes (VHM) posted the biggest loss, down 1.34 per cent, followed by Becamex (BCM) with a drop of 1.27 per cent.
Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) expected that after overcoming the prolonged downtrend, the benchmark index will struggle in the nearest support area of 1,183-1,185 points and continue to move towards the psychological zone of 1,200-1,211 points, which was the peak of 2018.
Meanwhile, on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index ended lower on Thursday, down 0.78 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 288.09 points.
During the session, nearly 64.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth over VND1.2 trillion.
On the other hand, foreign investors also net bought on both main exchanges. Of which, they net bought a value of VND378.68 billion on HoSE, and bought VND1.08 billion on HNX. — VNS