Equities Advance On Rate Cut Outlook

The index of 301 companies and five mutual funds listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange gained 0.37 percent, or 1.37 points, to open week at 367.4 points.

Across the benchmark, 92 stocks climbed, 126 fell, while 88 remained unchanged.

Trading on the city bourse dropped by 40 percent in volume, and 37 percent in value over the previous day as 37.31 million shares changed hands at a total value of VND614 billion.

Tan Tao Investment & Technology Joint Stock Company (ITA) was most active shares in volume with 1.28 million shares changing hands.

Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC) followed with 1.22 million shares.

Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam or Vietcombank (STB) came in third with 875,290 shares traded.

Meca Vneco Investment & Electricity Construction Joint Stock Company (VES) sprang 5.88 percent to VND1,800.

Saigon Beverages Joint Stock Company (TRI) surged 5.26 percent to close at VND2,000.

Cotec Investment & Land-House Development Joint Stock Company (CLG) and OPC Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (OPC) edged up 5 percent to VND12,600, and VND27,300 respectively.

Viky Plastic Joint Stock Company (VKP) slashed 10 percent to close at VND900.

Construction company Lilama 10 Joint Stock Company (L10) chopped 6.45 percent to VND5,800. The company will pay dividends for the first term of 2011 to its current shareholders in cash at a ratio of 5 percent on December 30.

Basa Joint Stock Company (BAS) shrank 6.25 percent to finish at VND1,500.

Hanoi’s HNX-Index of the smaller bourse in the north added up 0.6 percent, or 0.36 points, to close at 60.19 points. Around 26.63 million shares changed hands at a value of VND230.2 billion.

The UPCoM-Index advanced 0.5 percent to close at 34.22 points. The market of unlisted shares enjoyed robust trading as more than 6.79 million shares changed hands at a total value of VND303.11 billion.