HCMC – The outstanding performance of steel stocks and the improvement of securities stocks helped the benchmark VN-Index of the HCMC market end higher today, September 15.
In the afternoon phase, the news that Vietnam’s steel export revenue hit a record high in August added fuel to steel stocks.
According to data from the General Statistics Office, the country last month shipped 1.53 million tons of steel valued at nearly US$1.5 billion, rising nearly 34% in volume and over 35% in value against July, as well as up 2.5-fold year-on-year, the highest ever to date.
Following this upbeat news, steel stocks became cash magnets and stole limelight in the afternoon, with many of them soaring to ceiling prices such as NKG, POM, and TLH.
Steelmaker HSG rose 6.9% with 20.5 million shares traded, while SMC also increased a sharp 5.1%. Other stocks in the field such as VCA and VIS gained 1-2%.
HPG, a big name in the steel industry, advanced slower than its fellows but also gained 2.58% at the close, ending its three consecutive sessions of losses.
These top-performing steel stocks along with consumer goods producer MSN hitting its upper limit stimulated cashflow into various stocks in other fields and served as a driving force for the main index to close in positive territory.
With 281 advancers and 147 decliners, the VN-Index added 6.13 points, or 0.46% against the previous session at 1,345.83. Turnover on the southern bourse contracted 5% in volume and 2.4% in value at 692 million shares and over VND19 trillion. Of the total value, shares traded in block deals accounted for around VND2.1 trillion.
In the group of fuel and gas stocks, PVD reached its ceiling price, PLX inched up 1.6%, and GAS gained 2.8%.
Securities stocks also recovered after five sessions of correction. SSI saw a slight increase of 0.9%, HCM up 3.1%, BSI up 4.2%, in addition to many winners such as AGR, CTS, VDS, and VIX.
Besides this, VHM, GVR, POW were among contributors to the index’s rebound. Housing developer VHM improved 0.9%, rubber group GVR jumped 1.3%, and electricity firm POW soared 2.6%.
Meanwhile, bank stocks remained weak as only a few of them made slight gains such as BID, LPB, MSB, SSB, and TPB. VPB closed unchanged, while the rest encountered losses.
Regarding the Hanoi market, the HNX-Index closed at 350.75 points, up 2.89 points or 0.83% over the session earlier, with 160 stocks rising and 65 others dipping.
Fuel stocks on the northern market were also good performers. PVS surged 6.4% and was the most actively traded stock on bourse, with 19.7 million shares transacted. PVB and PVC edged up 4.9% and 5.8%, respectively.
