Stocks move flat for third day
Stocks move flat for third day
Domestic stocks marked the third straight session of sideways movement today, March 7, as large stocks again turned volatile at the strong resistance level of 1,000 points.
The VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange lost a fractional 0.46 point, or 0.05%, against the previous session at 994.03. Market turnover shrank 16% in volume to 210.7 million shares and nearly 8.2% in value to VND4.6 trillion, including 22.9 million shares traded in block deals worth VND679 billion.
Stocks in the Vingroup (VIC) family sent the main index to the 1,000-point level in the morning but they reduced their gains sharply in the afternoon. VIC closed the day up 1.2% at VND119,200, while VHM inched up 0.2% at VND92,000 and VRE rose 1.4% at VND35,000.
Other large caps weighed on the market, in which dairy giant VNM slid 0.9% at VND139,700. Beverage firm SAB lost 1.1% at VND241,000 and steel maker HPG declined 2.6% at VND34,100.
Among speculative stocks, property firm FLC fell 1.8% at VND5,550 but it took the lead by liquidity with 14 million shares traded. HAG, another real estate stock, dipped 1.3% at VND6,070 on volume of 5.1 million shares.
According to BIDV Securities Corporation, the VN-Index started the session up as buying power focused on blue chips. However, it failed to break through 1,000 points due to the lack of supporting news.
The market is expected to move flat in the last session of the week on Friday before rising strongly towards the end of this month, when goods news such as first-quarter business results of listed firms and annual general meetings fuel up investor sentiment, it said.
Viet Capital Securities Company noticed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade had recently announced an increase of the retail electricity price by 8.36% from VND1,721 to VND1,864 per kWh. The new retail electricity price is still 30% lower than other Asian Pacific countries while the Government gave guidelines for a retail electricity price of 9 U.S. cents a kWh by 2020.
“Higher retail price will help to increase input price/selling price of power plants in the long term. This benefits most stocks under our coverage, including REE, PPC, POW and NT2. This also reflects the Government’s strong commitment toward the liberalization of Vietnam’s power sector,” it said in a report.
Besides, the ministry also estimated that the new retail electricity price will reduce the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.22 percentage point and increase consumer price index (CPI) by 0.29 point.
The HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange added 0.4 point, or 0.37%, at 108.88. The market saw 82 million shares worth VND818.8 billion exchanged, soaring 43% and 38.7% versus Wednesday, respectively.
