The market continued to rise on Thursday, boosted by gains in material stocks and interest from foreign investors as they net bought more than VND1 trillion on two main exchanges.
The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) settled higher yesterday, up 10.81 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 1,345.55 points. The index struggled in the morning trade as strong selling pressure caused the index to fall in the early session, but surging demand helped halt losses and push the index to recover.
The market breadth was positive with 262 stocks increasing, while 116 fell. However, the liquidity was lower than the previous session as 635.5 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth over VND19.32 trillion (US$840.5 million).
The gain was mainly driven by large-cap stocks in material, real estate and banking sectors.
The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a rise of 0.97 per cent to close yesterday at 1,486.46 points. Twenty of 30 biggest stocks in the VN30 basket climbed while eight stocks fell and two ended flat.
Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Viet Nam Rubber Group JSC (GVR) were the two biggest influencers on the market’s trend yesterday, with gains of 2.74 per cent and 4.19 per cent, respectively.
Vinhomes JSC (VHM), Vietcombank (VCB) and VPBank (VPB) also support the benchmark, up in a range of 0.91 - 2.15 per cent.
Other stocks, mostly in the banking sector, also recorded good performance. There stocks were Techcombank (TCB), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and MBBank (MBB).
On Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index settled higher yesterday, up 1.7 per cent to 325.46 points.
Investors poured nearly VND3.9 trillion into the northern bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of 154.2 million shares.
Meanwhile, foreign investors were net buyers on both exchanges with a total value of over VND1.14 trillion. Of which, they net bought a value of VND1.1 trillion on HoSE and a value of VND19.32 billion on HNX.
In its recent report, VNDirect Securities Corporation was more cautious on the complexity of the COVID-19 outbreak and said that the prevention measures might make it difficult to build another rally in the short-term.
"The VN-Index had plunged 13.7 per cent from the peak due to concerns about negative impacts on the macro-economy and business activities," the securities firm said.
"The average liquidity in July also decreased by 12.8 per cent compared to the previous month."
However, the inflows of foreign investment were a positive signal, VNDirect added. Last month, foreign investors net bought a value of nearly VND4.6 trillion on the market, boosted by inflows from exchange traded funds (ETFs), especially Fubon FTSE Vietnam ETF. — VNS