Real estate, construction stocks rally on new policy moves

Stocks of Vietnamese property and construction companies made impressive performance on Monday following the State Bank of Vietnam’s issuance of two circulars that bolster the bond and real estate markets.

Circular 02 stipulates that credit institutions and foreign bank branches can extend debt repayment deadlines and keep debt categories unchanged to support customers in difficulty.

Meanwhile, Circular 03 allows credit institutions to buy back corporate bonds unlisted on the stock market or unregistered on the unlisted public company market (UPCoM) that they sell without having to wait 12 months from the date of selling. Both circulars took effect from Monday April 24.

Among the biggest gainers, BCG of Bamboo Capital, CTD of Coteccons Construction JSC, HQC of Hoang Quan Corp. and TCD of Tracodi hit their ceiling prices; NVL of Novaland rose 3.31%, NLG of Nam Long Group 3.28%, HDG of Ha Do Group 3.08%, SCR fof Saigon Thuong Tin Real Estate 3.39%, and HBC of Hoa Binh Corp. 2.37%.

The VN-Index, representing the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), inched down 1.55 points, or 0.15%, to 1,041.36, with 171 gainers and 205 losers.

Nearly 557 million shares changed hands for over VND9.14 trillion ($389 million), a slight drop of nearly VND600 billion from the previous session April 21.

The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest-cap stocks, lost 0.01 points to 1,046.17.

A divergence was seen in many stock groups. Among banking tickers, large caps like VCB of Vietcombank, CTG of VietinBank, VPB of VPBank, TCB of Techcombank, and MBB of MBBank closed in green; while SHB of Saigon-Hanoi Bank, EIB of Eximbank, MSB of Maritime Bank, LPB of LienVietPostBank, and OCB of Oriental Commercial Bank declined.

In the securities group, SSI of Saigon Securities went down 0.69%, VND of VNDirect Securities 0.66%, VCI of Viet Capital Securities 1.42%, HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities, 0.98%; while VDS of Viet Dragon Securities hit its ceiling price, VIX of VIX Securities expanded 3.74%, AGR of Agribank Securities 3.42%, and APS of Asia-Pacific Securities 2.29%.

Manufacturing and aviation tickers closed in red, with MSN of Masan Group making a surprise as it lost 4.06% right in the day when its annual general shareholder meeting was held.

Foreign investors turned net buyers on the HoSE to the tune of nearly VND240 billion ($10.2 million). They mainly net purchased MSB and HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat, while net selling MSN and SSI.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went down 0.16 points to 206.76, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market dropped 0.09 points to 77.9.