VN-Index up 6 points on steel, coal stock rally

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index went up 6.38 points, or 0.6%, to 1,072.22 on Wednesday from a sharp fall of 23.45 points in the previous session, thanks to the rally of steel and coal stocks.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, represented by the VN-Index, saw over 569.3 million shares changing hands for nearly VND10 trillion ($453.3 million), down 17.7% from Tuesday.

A series of steel and coal stocks hit their ceiling prices, including HSG of Hoa Sen Group, NBC of Bui Beo Coal JSC, MDC of Mong Duong Coal JSC, TVD of Vang Danh Coal JSC, TC6 of Coc Sau Coal JSC, and HLC of Ha Lam Coal JSC.

Green also overwhelmed tickers of companies engaging in construction materials and public investment works, with LCG of Lizen JSC up 5.4%, HHV of Deo Ca Traffic Infrastructure Investment JSC 3.3%, BCC of Bim Son Cement JSC 4%, and KSB of Binh Duong Mineral and Construction JSC 3.8%.

Five banking stocks that had the most negative impact on the market were VCB of Vietcombank (1.6%), BID of BIDV bank (1.6%), CTG of Vietinbank (2.4%), TCB of Techcombank (1.6%), and HDB of HDBank (1.7%).

Securities tickers also showed their good performance, with HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities gaining 3.6%, VCI of Viet Capital Securities 2.9%, SSI of Saigon Securities 2.4%, and VND of VNDirect 1.7%.

Positive transactions were also seen in other groups like oil and gas, chemicals, seaport, fertilizer, industrial real estate, and garment.

Foreign investors increased their net purchase value to over VND382 billion ($16.2 million) on the HoSE from only VND40 billion ($1.69 million) in the previous session. They mainly net bought STB of Sacombank, HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat and SSI, while net selling VHM of Vinhomes, VHM of Vinamilk, VIC of Vingroup, and VHC of Vinh Hoan Corp.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse rose 0.62 points to 210.62, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market went up 0.89 points to 76.43.