An investor watches the market's movements on his tablet. — VNA/VNS Photo

The Vietnamese stock market ended the first month of the New year on a positive note.

The market’s benchmarch VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed last month at 1,164.31 points, up 3.04 per cent from the end of 2023, while the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) was traded at 229.18 points, a slight decrease of 0.81 per cent.

Liquidity was at a level equivalent to December 2023. The average total transaction value reached over VNĐ18.75 trillion per session, an increase of 1.26 per cent from the previous month. Of which, the average matched order value rose by 7.63 per cent to VNĐ16.88 trillion a session.

Foreign transactions were a highlight of the market in January. In particular, foreign capital purchased more than one billion shares on the market, worth more than VNĐ31 trillion, while selling 938 million shares, equal to nearly VNĐ30 trillion.

As a result, they net bought a total of 132 million shares during the session, worth nearly VNĐ1.3 trillion.

The inflow of foreign capital was mainly driven by sudden transactions in Vietnam International Aviation Insurance (AIC) shares with a net purchase value of around VNĐ1.2 trillion.

Although there has been no official announcement, with a large stock volume and exactly the same as the expected purchasing amount, DB Insurance, a South Korean insurance company, has apparently completed the acquisition of more than 75 per cent of AIC capital on January 31.

Excluding the above transaction, foreign investors' cash flow was still more positive than it was in recent months.

On HoSE alone, foreign investors snapped a streak of nine consecutive months of net selling with a net buying value of VNĐ186 billion, equivalent to 64.7 million shares.

On the southern bourse, bank stocks were the most appealing investments. Among them, Vietcombank (VCB) saw the biggest net purchase value of nearly VNĐ900 billion in January. It was followed by Sacombank (STB) with a net buy value of VNĐ771 billion.

In contrast, Vinamilk (VNM) was net sold the most with VNĐ956 billion, followed by Vincom Retail (VRE) with a value of VNĐ791 billion. Two exchanged-trade funds (ETF) certificates, FUEVFVND and FUESSVFL, were both net sold quite strongly; FUEVFVND was net sold VNĐ751 billion and FUESSVFL, VNĐ370 billion.

On HNX, foreign investors net sold VNĐ191 billion after net buying for four consecutive months.

They net sold VNĐ240 billion worth of PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), which was also the largest net selling value on the northern exchange.

Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) also was net sold a big amount of VNĐ109 billion.

On the contrary, foreign investors poured a net value of up to VNĐ313 billion into IDICO Corporation (IDC). — VNS