HA NOI (VNS) – Shares continued to climb on the HCM City Stock Exchange yesterday.
The benchmark VN-Index increased 0.76 per cent to stand at 510.49 points, with more than 60.7 million shares, worth VND1.1 trillion (US$52.3 million), changing hands.
Among the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, tracked by the VN30, the majority retreated.
However, gains of some other heavyweight shares supported the market with rises of around 3 per cent for dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and software producer FPT Corp (FPT).
The VN30 was up 0.16 per cent overall at 575.93 points.
Financial and bank shares started to decline with Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and Vietcombank (VCB) falling from 0.9 to 2.3 per cent.
The capital adequacy ratio of the Vietnamese banking system fell to 13.6 per cent in January compared to 14.6 per cent in April last year, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.
Although this rate was higher than the bottom level of 9 per cent, the health of Vietnamese banks might be weaker if fully considering the actual level of bad debts and inadequate provisioning.
The bank also said Viet Nam's bad debt ratio could reach a double-digit figure if international accounting standard was applied.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up just 0.02 per cent to 61.37 points on the total trading value of VND293.5 billion ($13.9 million). Trading volume fetched 35.7 million shares.
Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) continued to be the most active code with trades of over 6 million shares, closing unchanged at VND7,300 a share.
The HNX30 which represents the performance of Ha Noi's best stocks, however slid 0.06 per cent to reach 117.38 points.
Foreign investors concluded yesterday session as buyers in the northern bourse with a margin of nearly VND6 billion ($285,700). However, they reversed the trend in HCM City to be sellers, unloading VND308.6 million ($14,600).
"Foreign investors may be restructuring their portfolios as they have been selling blue-chips while buying mid-cap stocks of the consumer goods sector," noted BIDV Securities Co analyst Hoang Anh Tuan.
Cash flows overall were also moving the small capitalisation shares, and blue chips began to lose their role in leading the market. — VNS