VN-Index ends losing streak, backed by blue-chips

Customers shopping at Vinmart, the supermarket chain of Masan Group. The company shares surged 3.8 per cent yesterday, boosting the recovery of the VN-Index. VNA/VnExpress News Photo 

HÀ NỘI — Indices were mixed on Wednesday, with some large-cap stocks rebounding from the recent sell-off. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index finished the choppy session at 1,442.79 points, up 3.85 points, or 0.27 per cent.

The index had lost for four consecutive sessions with shares across all sectors facing a sell-off, as investors planned to take profit before the Lunar New Year holidays. 

The market’s breadth was positive, but liquidity still dropped sharply compared to the previous session. On HoSE, 260 stocks rose, while 217 declined and 41 ended flat.

Meanwhile, investors poured in nearly VNĐ23 trillion (US$1 billion), equivalent to a trading volume of over 637.6 million shares. 

The benchmark’s recovery was thanks to large-cap stocks as the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a gain of 5.49 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,482.55 points. 

Eighteen stocks of the VN30 basket rose, while ten declined and two stayed unchanged. 

Masan Group (MSN) led the bullish trend, up 3.8 per cent. 

Also supporting the index’s uptrend, Becamex (BCM), SSI Securities Corporation (SSI), Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR) and Vinhomes (VHM) reported positive performance, with gains of at least 0.78 per cent and BCM shares even hit the biggest intraday rise of 7 per cent. 

Other real estate stocks like Kinh Bắc City Development Holding Corporation (KBC) and securities stocks like VNDirect (VND) also saw big increases, up 6.73 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively. 

However, profit-taking pressure ahead of the Lunar New Year continued to trigger sell-offs in some pillar stocks, especially in the banking sector, such as BIDV (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sahabank (SHB) and MBBank (MBB).

Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) also witnessed another session hitting the floor price. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index edged down 11.9 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 409.31 points, falling for a third straight session. 

During the session, more than 101.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ1.8 trillion. 

On the other hand, foreign investors net sold a value of nearly VNĐ5 trillion on HoSE, while they net bought a small amount of VNĐ4.64 billion on HNX. —VnExpress News