Blue chips help drive VN-Index up 4 points

193 stocks gained and 132 lost on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based. Liquidity surged to VND3.39 trillion ($146 million) from VND3 trillion ($129.4 million) last session, making Friday one of the most active sessions so far this month.

The VN30-Index for Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks added 0.71 percent, with 22 stocks gaining and only four losing. In this basket, 12 stocks gained at least 1 percent, four of them posting gains of more than 2 percent.

SBT of confectionary giant Thanh Thanh Cong - Bien Hoa SJC led the gains with 2.2 percent, followed by three private banks: EIB of Eximbank, VPB of VPBank, and TCB of Techcombank, which rose 2.1 percent, 2.1 percent and 2 percent respectively.

Stocks of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets all gained. BID of BIDV added 1.3 percent, CTG of VietinBank 1 percent, and VCB of Vietcombank 0.3 percent.

VIC of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup remained at its opening price this session, the fourth in a row, while VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes and VRE of Vingroup’s retail arm Vincom Retail gained 0.4 and 1.7 percent respectively.

VIC and VHM are currently the two highest market cap stocks on HoSE.

In the other direction, CTD of construction giant Coteccons led losses with 4.9 percent, continuing a losing streak that has lost nearly 39 percent since the beginning of October, after the company announced a third consecutive quarter of declining profits.

MSN of food giant Masan Group shed 1.1 percent, followed by ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros, down 0,4 percent, and VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and mid-cap stocks, added 0.19 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for Unlisted Public Companies rose 0.27 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of VND340 billion ($14.66 million) on all three bourses, with selling pressure mostly on VIC of Vingroup and VJC of Vietjet Air.