VN-Index slightly down before weekend

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index decreased 1.24 points, or 0.12%, to close Friday at 1,067 points.

The VNMID-Index for mid-cap stocks increased by 0.54%, the VNSML-Index representing small-cap stocks gained 0.17%, while the VN30 group of blue chips went down 0.18%, dragging down the benchmark index.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), represented by the VN-Index, saw 168 stocks gaining, 212 declining, and 50 standing at their reference prices.

The main bourse’s trading value was more than VND13.3 trillion dong ($566.7 million) on Friday, an increase of about VND1.6 trillion ($68 million) compared to Thursday.

On Friday, foreign investors bought 24.4 million STG shares of South Logistics JSC, (trading name Sotrans) for more than VND1.3 trillion (nearly $55.4 million). Sotrans has not announced the names of the foreign buyers.

The real estate group had some strongly gaining tickers like DIG, DXG, CII, and PDR of DIC Dorp., Dat Xanh, developer CII, and Phat Dat Group, respectively.

In banking, STB of Sacombank, SHB of Saigon Hanoi Bank, and CTG of VietinBank were the main supporters for the market, but VCB and BID of Vietcombank and BIDV, respectively, moved in the other direction.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse gained 0.9 points to 213.91, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market earned 0.18 points to 81.08.