Oil, gas stocks sustain market
Oil, gas stocks sustain market
Stocks eked out a small rise on the HCM City Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon thanks to strong gains by seafood, oil and gas companies.
The VN-Index inched up just 0.03 per cent to close at 628.99 points as gainers almost doubled decliners.
Blue chips dragged down the market, however, with half of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity losing value, pushing the VN30 down 0.2 per cent to end the session at 665.09 points.
Liquidity remained good. Market value increased slightly compared with the previous session, totaling VND2.577 trillion (US$122.1 million), but the volume of trades declined 10 per cent to 129.4 million shares.
Oil and gas stocks were the biggest gainers as many of this group hit the ceiling price yesterday, including Petroleum Industrial & Civil Construction (PXI), Petroleum Pipeline and Tank Construction (PXT), PVC Petro Capital & Infrastructure Investmen (PTL), IDICO - Petroleum Trading Construction Investment (PXL) and Petroleum Equipment Assembly & Metal Structure (PXS).
Money poured into seafood stocks. Hung Vuong Corp (HVG), Long An Food Processing Export (LAF), Ca Mau Frozen Seafood Processing Import Export (CMX) and An Giang Fisheries Import Export (AGF) and Cuu Long Fish (ACL) each climbed from 5-7 per cent.
Despite yesterday's gains, the market would likely see a correction as the Index had risen for three months and many stocks had gained substantial value, said Tran Hoang Son, Market Strategy chief at MB Securities Company.
"I think it's necessary to have a correction so that share prices can fall to reasonable levels to attract new money flow," Son said, noting that oil and gas shares had risen significantly and would be risky in the short term.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added another 0.63 per cent to finish the session at 88.41 points while the HNX30 increased 0.81 per cent to stand at 181.75 points.
Liquidity declined slightly with trading volume totaling nearly 75 million shares worth VND1.024 trillion ($48.5 million), down 10 per cent in volume and 20 per cent in value against Wednesday.
Hot stocks like PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate Co (SCR) and Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) continued to lead the market with each having 5-7 million shares traded.
Foreign investors concluded yesterday as net sellers on the two markets. They were responsible for a combined net sell value of nearly VND57 billion ($2.7 million).
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