Mid-cap stocks lift VN Index

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - The VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange struggled to risefor a third day as investors tried offloading their stakes in large-cap stocksand shifted focus to penny and mid-cap shares.

Vietnam’sbenchmark index ended up 0.05 percent at 706.26 points, lifting its gain to athird day with a total growth of 0.8 percent.

Morethan 175 million shares worth 3.27 trillion VND (145.5 million USD) were tradedon the southern bourse, an increase of 8.6 percent in trading volume and 18 percentin trading value compared to February 13.

Halfof the large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket, which tracks the performance of the30 largest companies by market capitalisation, suffered losses on February 14and weighed down the benchmark index.

Amongthose companies, dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), Vietcombank (VCB) and Sai GonSecurities Inc (SSI) edged down between 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent.

Otherlarge-cap companies, including insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), RefrigerationElectrical Engineering Corporation (REE) and KIDO Group (KDC), also recordedlosses in share prices after recent gains.

BVHdropped 2.3 percent following a two-day increase of 2.7 percent, REE slid 1.1 percentafter rising a total 7.3 percent in a six-day period, and KDC retreated 0.4 percentfrom a six-day rally of 6 percent.

“TheVN Index is undergoing heavy pressure created by investors’ selling after thebenchmark index reached the nine-year high level of 700 points,” Bao VietSecurities Corp (BVSC) said in a note.

Meanwhile,mid-cap and penny stocks proved to be attractive to investors. Eight of the 10most active stocks with the highest trading volume were mid-cap and pennystocks.

Thethree most active stocks were property developer FLC Group (FLC) with 18.8million of its shares being exchanged, agriculture real estate group Hoang AnhGia Lai (HAG), and finance corporation Ocean Group JSC (OGC) with around 10.8million of their shares being traded.

Amongthe three most active stocks, HAG gained 4.5 percent to advance a total 9.6 percentafter the last three sessions after confidence in the company was bolstered byhigher rubber prices on global trading and expectations for better performancein 2017.

Onthe Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index pulled back 0.3 percent to close at86.19 points. The northern market index had rallied 1.7 percent in the previousfive days.

Morethan 44.3 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth 436.5billion VND.-VNA

VNA