Market settles higher but liquidity remains low

A store of Phú Nhuận Jewellry in Bình Dương Province. The company’s shares jumped nearly 4.5 per cent on Thursday, supporting the bullish trend. — Photo Aeon Mall Binh Duong

HÀ NỘI — Benchmark indices extended rallies to the third straight session on Thursday, but liquidity remained at low levels while foreign investors continued to withdraw capital from the market.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the trading day at 1,102.43 points, an increase of 1.67 points, or 0.15 per cent. The index had recovered by 10.55 points in the last three sessions.

Breadth of market, however, returned to negative territory, as there were more decliners than gainers. Liquidity also stayed low, with VNĐ11.29 trillion (US$464 million) worth of shares trading on the southern exchange.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, gained 0.42 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 1,097.43 points. Ten ticker symbols in the VN30 basket inched higher, while 12 declined and eight ended flat.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also performed positively. It finished higher today, up 0.32 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 228.48 points.

Investors poured VNĐ969 billion on the northern bourse, equal to a trading volume of over 53.37 million shares.

Data compiled by a financial website vietstock.vn showed that BIDV (BID) was the bullish market’s leader with an increase of 1.21 per cent, followed by Phú Nhuận Jewelry SJC (PNJ) up nearly 4.5 per cent, Vinhomes (VHM) rose 0.63 per cent and Techcombank (TCB) up 0.99 per cent.

Market pared gains as some pillar stocks still faced selling force led by PV Gas (GAS), down 0.66 per cent. Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB) and Vinamilk (VNM) also performed poorly, falling in the range of 0.25-1.3 per cent.

Securities stocks also witnessed corrections after recent rallies. In particular, VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND) dropped 0.91 per cent, VIX Securities Corporation (VIX) down 0.6 per cent and SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) decreased by 0.31 per cent.

Foreign investors continued to be net sellers on the market as they net sold more than VNĐ534.1 billion on HoSE and VNĐ7.54 billion on HNX. — VNS