HANOI: Vietnamese banking shares rose on the two local bourses yesterday after the US central bank decided to maintain the current interest rate. Both the benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange and the HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange edged up 0.7 per cent to finish at 566.25 points and 77.75 points, respectively. The banking sector was up 1.1 per cent after the US central bank decided to maintain the interest rate at zero per cent early yesterday.
“Investors don’t have to worry about the flow of foreign capital into Viet Nam’s market. One of the reasons is the exchange rate between the dong and the dollar will remain stable until the end of the year,” Truong Van Phuoc, deputy director of the National Financial Supervisory Commission said. Seven of nine listed banks improved, including Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) and Vietcombank (VCB). Their gains ranged between 0.9 and 3.6 per cent.
The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) yesterday lost 1.2 per cent and traded more than 6.9 million of its shares. That was an improvement as the share dropped 6.8 per cent and traded only 198,000 in total on Thursday and Wednesday. In addition, two investment funds – the Market Vector VNM ETF and the FTSE VNM ETF – helped boost trading on the market, especially stocks that would be added into the indices of the two funds.
Petrovietnam Power Nhon Trach 2 (NT2) was up 2.5 per cent with more than 7.3 million shares and Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG) rose 1.3 per cent with more than 7.4 million shares. There were also four other shares on both bourses that traded more than seven million shares. Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Co (VCG) on the northern bourse was the most active stock with more than 7.7 million shares and gained 0.9 per cent.
Both local bourses yesterday traded more than 209 million shares. Total market trading value was VND3.64 trillion (US$162 million), twice the total trading value on Thursday. However, one of the leading sectors on the market – energy firms – reduced their gains in the early session as the global oil price was on a slight decline. West Texas Intermediate crude yesterday traded at $46.73 a barrel, a decrease of 0.4 per cent.
On the local market, Petrovietnam Gas Corp (GAS) was down 1.2 per cent, erasing its gain of 0.4 per cent in the morning and Petrovietnam Drilling & Well Services (PVD) made a slight gain of 0.8 per cent.
