Viet Nam stocks rise for a second day

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.24 per cent to close yesterday at 989.26 points.

The southern market index rose 0.25 per cent on Thursday. After five trading days, it posted a weekly gain of 0.87 per cent.

The VN-Index marked its first growing week after having fallen total 3.07 per cent in two trading weeks since its six-month high of 1,011.86 points reached on March 18.

Liquidity improved with nearly 189.3 million shares being traded on the southern bourse, worth VND3.88 trillion (US$166.7 million).

The market breadth was positive with 158 gaining stocks, 129 decliners and 67 flat-ending stocks.

Large-cap stocks slightly improved as the blue-chip VN30-Index inched up 0.04 per cent to 904.69 points with 17 gainers against 11 decliners.

Positive gains of technology and petroleum stocks continued supporting the market as they did in the morning trade.

The two sector indices gained 1.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Petro stocks were boosted by the recent uptrend of oil prices. Despite losing 0.5 per cent to trade at $69 a barrel yesterday, Brent crude has increased gradually by total 37 per cent since last Christmas.

The recent gains of oil prices have increased investors demand for petroleum stocks in recent weeks on expectations those firms would release positive results for the first quarter of 2019.

Among local petroleum stocks, PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) advanced 2.5 per cent, PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) was up 1.6 per cent.

The tech sector was driven by the solo of CMC Corporation (CMG), which soared 6.8 per cent. The company shares have gained 64 per cent in more than three months.

CMC Corp has recently announced it earned total VND6 trillion in revenue and VND300 billion in pre-tax profit for the financial year 2018, which last from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.

“The last two growing days have lessened the risk of deeper decline for the VN-Index when capital flow is targeting companies that are expected to produce good outcomes for the first quarter,” Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

“However, the VN-Index may still encounter strong resistance when it approaches the previous peak of 1,000 points.”

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added 0.42 per cent to end at 107.87 points.

The northern market index gained total 0.53 per cent in the last two trading days and total 0.40 per cent during the week.

More than 30.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND403 billion.