Blue chips drive VN-Index up

The index stayed in the red for most of the day but surged in the last hour of trading to gain 24 points.

But it is still at the lowest since last July, having fallen 15 percent since the beginning of the year.

Major Asian markets extended losses Thursday, tracking a sell-off overnight on Wall Street on concerns that the US Federal Reserve’s planned rate hikes will hamper the economy’s growth prospects, Reuters reported.

China’s Hang Seng Index closed 1.84 percent lower, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.58 percent.

Trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, dipped marginally to VND17.79 trillion ($775.49 million).

This was the eighth straight session the index closed with trading value under the 20-trillion mark.

The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 28 tickers in the green, led by TPBank with a 5.4 percent gain.

FPT of IT giants FPT Corporation and VPB of VPBank followed, both surging 4.7 percent, while HDB of HDBank rose 4.6 percent.

Other winners included PDR of property developer Phat Dat, up 4.4 percent, VJC of budget airline Vietjet, up 4.1 percent, and BID of state-owned lender BIDV, up 3.9 percent.

VRE of Vingroup mall operator arm Vincom Retail and GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group were the only blue chip losers this session with a 0.4 and 0.8 percent slip.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of VND714.7 billion, highest in a week. They mainly bought STB of HCMC-based lender Sacombank and NLG of Nam Long Investment Corporation.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 2.05 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market gained 2.65 percent.