VN-Index records strong gains in year-opening session

The benchmark VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), surged 36.81 points, or 3.66%, to nearly 1,044 in the first trading session of 2023.

The liquidity on the major bourse also improved with more than 518 million shares changing hands for nearly VND8,364 billion ($355.5 million), up more than 49% compared to the trading value of December 30.

Green covered all groups with 352 gainers, including 67 hitting their ceiling prices, and only 74 losers.

The VN30 index, which features the 30 largest-cap stocks, rose 42.06 points, or 4.18%, to 1,047.25. All tickers in the VN30 basket closed the session above their reference levels, with PDR of real estate developer Phat Dat, HPG of steel giant Hoa Phat, SSI of Saigon Securities, and VRE of Vincom Retail enjoying maximum gains.

Other blue chips including BID of BIDV bank, TCB of Techcombank, GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group, KDH of Khang Dien Holdings, VIC of Vingroup, MBB of MBBank, and VIB of Vietnam International Bank expanded by over 4%, further reinforcing the strong rally of the main index.

Pillar groups such as securities, steel, and real estate made an impression with a series of tickers closing in purple, including VND of VNDirect, HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities, NKG of Nam Kim Steel, HSG of Hoa Sen Group, L14 of Licogi 14, and CEO of CEO Group.

Construction stocks also showed a good performance with CTD of Coteccons, VGC of Vietnam Construction And Import-Export JSC, and FCN of Fecon hitting their ceiling prices. Notably, HBC of Hoa Binh Group expanded 2.61% from its floor price of VND8,570 ($0.36) recorded at the opening due to an ongoing internal conflict.

Not only the main groups, small and medium ones like oil and gas, chemicals, healthcare, seaports, fisheries and electricity also gained.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers for the seventh consecutive session to the tune of nearly VND240 billion ($ 10.2 million) on the HoSE. They mainly net purchased HPG, VNM of Vinamilk, VIC and MSN of Masan Group, while net selling DPM of Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corporation, VHC of Vinh Hoan Corp, STB of Sacombank, and DGC of Duc Giang Chemicals.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went up 7.25 points to 212.56, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market rose 0.75 points to 72.40.