Shares extended their rally from last week, concluding Monday in positive territory with a focus on retail, food-drink and seafood processing industries.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index increased 0.77 per cent to close at 1,116.02 points. Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange added 0.78 per cent to end at 229.37 points.

Market performance was generally positive with 371 shares gaining, 213 losing and 212 closing flat in the two markets.

The VN30 basket, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM City’s exchange, favoured gainers with 23 shares climbing, only five declining and two closing unchanged.

Although liquidity declined slightly from Friday it maintained a high level with a total of 935 million shares worth VND17.4 trillion (US$738 million) being traded in the two markets.

Regarding industries, retail, beverage and food and seafood processing led the market gains with an average growth of more than 2 per cent each.

In retail, FPT Digital Retail (FRT) emerged as the top gainer, surging by the daily ceiling of 7 per cent to VND62,100 ($2.63) – the highest value since mid-March – and high trading volume of nearly three million shares. Since May, FRT value has gained more than 16 per cent.

Another player in the retail industry, Digiworld (DGW), also hit the ceiling price of VND41,000 a share, marking a one-month growth of nearly 43 per cent. Meanwhile, Mobile World Investment (MWG) jumped 3.9 per cent to VND43,000 a share, reflecting a growth of 15 per cent in the last two weeks.

The surge in retail shares could be attributed to investors’ expectation of improved business results in the second quarter, as well as the fact that their share prices were relatively low. The first quarter proved to be a challenging period for retailers, with MWG reporting a profit of just VND21 billion – the lowest since its listing. Meanwhile, FRT even incurred a loss of VND5 billion, marking its worst result since 2020.

However, retail revenues are expected to rebound. Data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed the total retail revenue of goods and services in May reached VND2.53 quadrillion, up 12.6 per cent year-on-year, its highest growth rate since 2015.

In food and beverage, big names including Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Sabeco (SAB) also increased by between 2.5 per cent and 3.2 per cent.

In seafood processing, high growth was seen in I.D.I International Development and Investment (IDI), Vinh Hoan Corp (VHC), Cuu Long Fish (ACL) and Sao Ta Foods (FMC) with growth of between 1.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent each.

Foreign traders were net buyers on both exchanges but with a modest net value of VND88 billion. — VNS