Vietnam's stock rallies; Malaysia up on positive industrial data
Vietnam's stock rallies; Malaysia up on positive industrial data
Vietnam shares rallied on Thursday, outperforming the region to post their fourth consecutive session of gains, as jumps in large-cap companies buoyed up sentiment, while Malaysian stocks hit a more-than-three-month high on positive industrial production data.
Big sell-offs in Vietnam in the past few weeks, driven mostly by margin selling, has been followed by re-focussing of buyers into a handful of stocks, said Fiachra MacCana, head of research, Ho Chi Minh Securities.
Financials and consumer staples drove gains on the Vietnam bourse. Dairy producer Vinamilk, Vietnam's biggest-listed firm by market value, rose 3.05 percent, while the country's biggest lender by market capitalisation Vietcombank gained 4.6 percent.
"The money is returning to the basic stocks and large caps accompanied by increased trading volume," BIDV Securities Company said in a note.
"However, given the lower-than-average volumes, very narrow focus of buying, lack of resolution in some ongoing stock-specific governance issues, and the still rather high margin lending balances, we expect this rally to be fairly short-lived," added MacCana.
Malaysian stocks gained 0.34 percent to its highest close since April 27, fuelled by the country's June industrial production data.
Factory output rose 5.3 percent from a year earlier, due to strength in the mining, manufacturing, and electricity sectors, government data showed.
Malaysia's second-quarter gross domestic product figures are expected on Friday.
Thai shares inched higher as the country's central bank international reserves rose to $182.5 billion.
The central bank and finance ministry have predicted higher growth in the second quarter compared with the first.
Philippine shares slipped 0.8 percent for the second consecutive session, dragged down by financial stocks, such as GT Capital Holdings Inc and investment holding company Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
The Philippine central bank left its benchmark interest rate at 3 percent, lowered its forecasts for 2016 and 2017 average inflation.
Singapore and Indonesia closed marginally down.
