Market buoyed by blue-chip gains

With advancers far outnumbering decliners by 171 to 117, the VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange extended its winning streak to the sixth consecutive session, soaring 10.65 points, or 1.09% against Friday to 987.13 points.

Bao Viet Securities said in its report today that the market is expected to head toward the next resistance zone of 993-1000 points in the short run. However, after passing 980-983 points, the benchmark index may experience volatility and correction pressure in this zone in several sessions before moving further upwards.

The market’s current risk is foreign investors’ net selling activities though the selling pressure is gradually easing, according to the stock brokerage.

Cash flow is also expected to focus on the oil and gas, industrial zone, textile, and retail sectors, and several stocks that saw deep decrease recently, such as securities and real estate. Bank stocks are going flat but sending signals of gains.

Active cash flow spurred up turnover on the southern bourse today as volume and value expanded by 13.4% and 15.2% to some 153 million shares worth more than VND3.6 trillion. Of these, block deals amounted to 18.8 million shares valued at VND597.4 billion.

The VN30 basket saw up to 22 stocks rising while five others decreased slightly. Leading property developer VIC and its housing affiliate VHM made their recovery today, making positive contributions to the main index.

While other heavyweights saw slight gains, gas firm GAS, brewer SAW and lender VCB were three stocks with the strongest growth in the morning phase, expanding 2.5%, 2.3% and 1.5%, respectively to VND113,000, VND263,000 and VND67,800 per share.

Dairy producer VNM was also regarded as the fourth stock that offered strong support to the southern market as it rose by 1.4% to VND137,500 per share.

Leading fuel distributor PLX, similar to its fellow GAS, gained 2.2% on the rise of global oil prices on expectations that tension between the United States and Iran would disrupt global supply, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, is cautious about their output.

Though construction firm ROS suffered a sharp decline of 3.7% to close at VND33,500 per share, it still took the lead by liquidity with more than 10.6 million shares traded.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index of the Hanoi Stock Exchange inched up 0.5% to close at 106.31 points. Around 28.8 million shares worth over VND384 billion were locally traded, down 12.4 in volume but up 4% in value.

Most stocks in the oil and gas sector, such as PVB, PVI, PVC and PVS, were in positive territory, with their gains ranging from 1% to 3.3%. PVS especially grew by 3.3% to hit the intraday high of VND22,500 and was the most traded stock with 4.5 million shares changing hands.

Some blue chips on the southern bourse witnessed gains, including construction firm VCG, stone manufacturer VCS and lender ABC.