VN-Index records strongest gain in five months

The VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), surged 18.35 points, or 1.55%, to close at 1,201.72 on Monday, marking its sharpest increase in five months.

The major bourse saw up to 419 gainers and only 90 losers, with over 883 million shares changing hands for more than VND19.8 trillion ($822 million), a slight decrease of 2.4% from the previous session last Friday.

Blue chips were the main force pushing up the VN-Index as their VN30-Index gained 19.47 points to 1,213.4, with up to 28 tickers rising, two going flat and none losing.

The biggest gainers in the VN30 basket were BCM of Becamex IDC Corp. and VNM of Vinamilk, over 4%; FPT of FPT Corp, VRE of Vincom Retail and HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat, over 3%; GVR of Vietnam Rubber Group and MWG of Mobile World, more than 2%.

The mid-cap group also showed positive performance with many tickers approaching their ceiling prices.

The green covered all stock groups, including banking, securities, real estate, manufacturing, energy, aviation and retail.

In the real estate group, BCG of Bamboo Capital, QCG of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Corp., and HPX of Hai Phat Invest hit their ceiling prices.

Among manufacturing stocks, VNM of Vinamilk recorded a rare strong increase of 4.01% while DGC of Duc Giang Chemicals gained 5.01%, DCM of Petrovietnam Ca Mau Fertilizer JSC 4.92%, and DPM of Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corporation 3.28%.

Foreign investors were net buyers on the HoSE to the tune of nearly VND130 billion ($5.4 million) after net selling nearly VND850 billion ($35.4 million) in the last Friday session.

The HNX-Index at the Hanoi Stock Exchange went up 1.98 points to 244.88, while the UPCoM-Index on the Unlisted Public Companies Market inched up 0.16 points to 91.01.