Foreign investors’ net stock purchase surges

Foreign investors on Thursday increased their net purchase of Vietnamese stocks to the tune of over VND431.59 billion ($18.31 million) on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), up nearly 79% from the previous session.

They mainly net bought HPG of steel giant Hoa Phat, STB of Sacombank, VIC of Vingroup, and SSI of Saigon Securities.

The VN-Index, which represents the HoSE, experienced a slight rise of 1.62 points, or 0.15%, to 1,077.59, with over 634.7 million shares traded for more than VND11 trillion ($469.08 million). There were up to 300 losers and 111 gainers on the major bourse.

The VN30 index, tracking the performance of 30 largest cap stocks, inched up 5.39 points to 1,093.48. The basket of blue chips saw a divergence, with 16 tickers gaining and 12 declining.

The main support for the market came from the blue chips, with MWG of Mobile World Investment Corp expanding over 5%; VRE of Vincom Retail, up 3%; STB, VCB of Vietcombank and MSN of Masan, nearly 2%; VIC, HPG, BID of BDIV bank and TPB of TPBank, around 1%.

Red overwhelmed the mid caps as almost all real estate, securities, retail and construction material stocks closed below their reference levels.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse dropped 0.7 points to 215.31, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market went down 0.05 points to 74.88.