Mild rally ends losing streak
By Phuong Thao - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Despite yet another gloomy trading session, the stock market ended its five-day losing streak with a modest rally buoyed by a late rebound on Thursday, with the VN-Index inching up a mere 0.12 point, or 0.03%, against the previous session to close at 418.16.
The market opened in the black before quickly falling to the daily low of 415.34 points and recovering to Wednesday’s close by the end of the morning session. In the afternoon, the market saw the weakness followed by a recovery and ended just in the black.
Liquidity saw no improvement as investors stayed on the sidelines for most of the time. On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, there were nearly 34 million shares worth VND776 billion traded, down 8.5% and 11.8% against a day earlier respectively.
Losers still outnumbered gainers by 145 to 98, with 20 stocks hitting the ceiling prices and 42 others plunging to the floor prices. In terms of the VN-Index, GAS, VCB and HAG made the biggest positive contribution while BVH, MSN, FPT and VIC were the biggest drags.
Meanwhile, the VN30 Index was still stuck on the downward trend, losing 1.06 points, or 0.22%, to close at 491.71 despite 12 tickers going up versus nine others sliding. Viet Capital Securities Co. said the loss of VN30 Index suggested that the current upward trend was driven mostly by penny stocks while blue-chips were still on the slide.
Foreigners were net buyers but only by a tiny margin while overall participation rates were lower than previous days. They accounted for 12.16% and 12.12% of the market’s buying and selling value respectively.
The Hanoi market gained some ground with turnover down further to VND301 billion. The HNX-Index advanced by 0.66 point, or 0.93%, against the previous session and ended the day at 71.36.
The session saw 140 stocks advancing and 86 others dipping, of which 20 surged to the ceiling prices and 30 others plummeted to the floor prices. Foreigners accounted for 1.4% of the buying value and 0.2% of the selling value.
HCMC Securities Corp. said on Thursday’s move was partly on a better performance in the bond market, the oversold state of many stocks and perhaps even a little window dressing ahead of the end of the first half.
“High-beta issues in particular made some nice gains after recent persistent falls. However, we maintain our cautious view as July may be a testing time,” it said.