VN-Index slows down

Closing, the benchmark index gained 2.73 points or 0.31% over the session earlier to 883.9, with 209 winners and 145 losers. Trading volume and value rose over 20% each at over 430 million shares worth VND6.6 trillion. There were 36.7 million shares worth VND1.2 trillion traded in block deals.

The group of bluechips that had staged impressive performance in the morning failed to maintain their high rises at the close. Lenders BID and CTG added some 2%, while retailer VRE and dairy firm VNM expanded 1% each. Securities firm SSI soared 3.3%.

Especially, lender VCB in the group made little headway compared to the morning trade as it closed up 1.3% to VND89,000 per share. Construction company CTD hit its upper limit of 7% to VND72,000.

Other advancers on the southern bourse included jewelry firm PNJ, fuel distributor PLX, and low-cost carrier VJC.

Meanwhile, two bank stocks HDB and VPB bucked the market trend as they closed in the red, in addition to other decliners such as steelmaker HPG and property developers VIC and VHM.

Among speculative stocks, ITA and HQC again reached their ceiling prices with high matching volume. HAG, AAA, DBC, TDH, QCG also hit their upper limits.

Construction firm ROS stole the limelight in this group after its board of directors announced the swap ratio of one for 15 for the merger between the firm and GAB-its sister in the FLC Group. As a result, ROS surged 7% and hit its ceiling price of VND3,230, leading the southern market by liquidity with nearly 45 million shares transacted.

On the Hanoi market, lender SHB and securities firm SHS remained the main contributors of the HNX-Index’s rally. SHB surged 4.6% while SHS rose a sharp 9.3%. The index improved 0.94 point or 0.8% to 117.42.