Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares advanced on strong investorinterest in large-cap stocks but declining liquidity signaled furthervolatility during the last week of the year.
The benchmark VN Index gained 0.63 percent to close at 958.31 points. Thesouthern market index rose total 1.83 percent last week.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched up 0.18 percent to end at113.23 points following weekly growth of 1.28 percent.
More than 215.4 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth 5.14trillion VND (228.4 million USD), down 11 percent in volume and 3.6 percent invalue compared to last week’s average daily trading figures.
The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest companies bymarket capitalisation and has a big impact on market movement, was up 0.36 percentto 949.28 points.
The large-cap group indicator was driven by strong growth of brewer Sabeco(SAB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), property developer Vingroup (VIC),PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), petrol dealer Petrolimex (PLX) and Vietcombank (VCB).
BVH, SAB and VIC were the three blue chips that achieved the highest growthrates, which were 6.2 percent, 5.4 percent and 3.2 percent.
The strong increase of Vingroup shares also pulled Coteccons ConstructionCorporation (CTD) – Vingroup’s key building contractor for its real estateprojects – up 2.2 percent.
Other gainers in the VN30 Index included PetroVietnam Drilling and WellServices (PVD), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), FLC Faros Construction Corp (ROS)and IT conglomerate FPT Corp (FPT).
According to Saigon-Hanoi Securities Company (SHS), large-cap stocks were stillthe most important factor driving the VN Index up, however, there may not be astrong increase for Vietnam’s benchmark index in the next session.
SHS said in its daily report that there was strong divergence among large-capstocks in the VN30 basket, proved by the fact that losing stocks dominated theblue-chip index while investors continued to withdraw from Mid-cap andSmall-cap indices, making stocks in the two groups suffer.
“Declining liquidity with just over 215.4 million shares being traded alsoshowed investors’ tendency to sell more, stand by and stay quiet during theyear-end period,” SHS noted.
Foreign investors had a quiet trading day, posting a net sell value of morethan 75 billion VND on the two local exchanges. They recorded a net buy valueof 226.7 billion VND on December 22.
The Hanoi-based brokerage firm forecast that the VN Index on Tuesday mayincrease slightly to the resistance range of 960-963 points.-VNA
VNA
