Inside a PNJ shop. Shares of jewellery firm PNJ gained 1.2 per cent on Wednesday. — Photo vietnamfinance.vn
Vietnamese shares struggled to advance on Wednesday as market sentiment remained low in the pre-holiday period.
The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained only 0.06 per cent to close at 967.56 points.
The VN-Index inched up 0.12 per cent on Tuesday.
Trading liquidity declined on a daily basis with more than 150 million shares traded, worth VND3.14 trillion (US$135.8 million).
The figure included 112 million shares exchanged via order-matching transactions, worth VND2 trillion.
Capital flow tends to weaken as the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday approaches and investors decide to take an early break from the market, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Co (SHS) said in its daily report.
Such poor market sentiment makes trading liquidity modest, the company said.
Foreign investors net-sold a total of VND35 billion worth of local stocks. That also hurt market sentiment, SHS said.
The large-cap VN30-Index inched up 0.07 per cent to 885.36 points at the end of the day.
Only eight of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket advanced while 14 declined.
The VN30 futures on the derivatives market, which will mature on Thursday, ended Wednesday 1.56 points lower than the VN30-Index.
That shows investors still feel negative about the market outlook, which will hardly change in the short term, SHS added.
Among gainers were lenders VPBank (VPB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG), Phu Nhuan Jewellery JSC (PNJ) and steel firm Hoa Phat (HPG).
On the opposite side, the worst-performing stocks included FLC Faros Construction (ROS), Vincom Retail (VRE), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and HDBank (HDB).
Mid-cap stocks traded quite well on Wednesday, showing investors are seeking opportunities in mid-cap firms amid the lack of good business news.
The mid-cap VNMID-Index was up 0.46 per cent to close at 933.09 points.
SHS forecast the benchmark VN-Index would continue moving up and down on Thursday in the 950-970 range as it has been doing in the last six weeks.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.17 per cent to end at 103.19 points.
The northern market index gained a total of 3.02 per cent between January 9 and January 14.
Nearly 25 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND306.3 billion. — VNS