Stock market likely to fluctuate within narrow range before lunar new year

The Vietnamese stock market in the January 16-19 trading week before the Lunar New Year holiday would see fluctuations within a narrow range, but investors might catch some short-term opportunities, according to experts.

Both the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) and the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) will close on January 20-26 for the long holiday, or Tet.

Shares ended the week on Friday with the benchmark VN-Index rising 0.36% to close at 1,060.17 points. For the whole week, the index gained 8.73 points. The average matching volume on the HoSE was nearly 436 million shares per session, down 20.65% compared to the previous trading week, while the HNX averaged almost 51 million shares per session, down 16.52%. This shows a cautious sentiment before Tet.

Over the past 21 years in the Vietnamese stock market’s history, the VN-Index average yield in the trading week just before the Lunar New Year was all positive.

Nguyen Anh Khoa, head of analysis at Agriseco Securities, said this would be an opportunity for investors to accumulate good stocks at low prices, especially those in the VN30 group.

The VN30 basket tracks 30 stocks with the highest market capitalization and liquidity on the HoSE.

Le Duc Khanh, director of analysis at VPS Securities, said investors could take advantage of short-term trading in stocks in the areas of banking, construction, oil and gas, and industrial real estate.

"Flexible trading is advisable for next week. A feature of the market before Tet is the index would fluctuate within a narrow range, but some might fluctuate strongly like oil and gas stocks," said Khanh.

"Attention should be paid to stocks for both short-term and long-term investments," he added.

From a technical point of view, Vietcombank Securities believes the market may see some slight vibration next week, and some surfing may be profitable.

According to securities broker MBS, the VN-Index has had two consecutive gaining weeks, and the upper limit of 1,064 points is still a strong resistance as there is no support from market liquidity. After the long holiday, either some rallies or sideway-up are expected, but investors would probably have opportunities in single stocks.