Viet Nam’s benchmark VN Index finished on Friday in the negative territory as investors took profits after the benchmark surpassed the old peak of 1,130 points.

The VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was down 0.07 per cent to end at 1,123.41 points. It gained more than 1 per cent on Thursday.

The VN Index reached its intraday peak of 1,135.02 points before going down on investors’ profit-taking pressure.

After five alternating up and down sessions, the benchmark index posted slight weekly growth of 0.2 per cent.

A similar trading pattern occurred for the HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange and UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), but the two indices remained positive at the end of the session.

The HNX Index increased by 1.14 per cent to close at 127.58 points, extending its uptrend for a second session with total growth of 1.6 per cent.

However, the northern exchange index fell 0.5 per cent after one trading week.

The UPCOM Index added 0.88 per cent from Thursday’s gain of 0.6 per cent to end this week at 61.37 points, posting a weekly increase of 2 per cent.

Nearly 300 million shares were traded on the Vietnamese stock market, worth VND8.53 trillion (US$379 million).

The market breadth was slightly positive with 348 gaining stocks and 300 declining ones. The same trading condition also characterised the VN30 group, which included the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation.

The VN30 Index gained 0.14 per cent to 1,106.54 points with 14 gaining stocks and 13 losers.

Among 20 industries, banks, insurance companies and rubber producers were the supportive stocks for the market while energy, IT and plastic firms weighed down the market movement.

Among those firms, Binh Minh Plastic JSC (BMP) lost 3.8 per cent to VND82,700 per share, totalling a near-12 per cent loss in the last seven trading days.

The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), representing the Government to control the State’s capital in the largest plastic producer by market capitalisation, on Friday sold more than 24 million shares or 29.5 per cent of the firm’s charter capital.

The shares were sold at the average price of VND96,500 per share and SCIC earned VND2.33 trillion from the sale.

The institutional investor that participated in the sale was reported to be the Thailand-based plastic firm Nawaplastic Industries Co Ltd.

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), the VN Index reached its new peak of 1,135 points after the market sentiment benefited from the latest signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Chile.

The official signing of the CPTPP to replace the former Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “brought positive psychology to investors”, pushing the VN Index up to 1,135 points with growth spreading across most sectors, BSC wrote in a report.

However, the market failed to remain at its new high as some leading stocks dropped sharply at the end of the session with the real estate firms showing signs of correction, BSC said.

“The short-term profit-taking at the peak still hindered the breakout,” the firm said, adding that would make the index shake before surpassing the short-term high next week. — VNS