Vietnamese shares rallied on February 26 but the uptrend weakened towards the closing minutes due to selling pressure in a number of blue-chips, especially during the ATC session.

 

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) gained 1.06 percent to settle at 1114.53 points, falling from the intraday high of 1116.2 points. It had gained 2.49 percent to close at 1,102.85 points on February 23.

 

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) dropped 0.06 points to end at 126.18 points. The index rose 1.24 percent to end at 126.24 points on February 23.

 

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) inched up 0.31 percent to finish at 59.74 points. It inched 0.43 percent to finish at 59.56 points.

 

More than 336.03 million shares were traded on the three local exchanges, worth 9.6 trillion VND (420.7 million USD).

 

Market trading conditions turned negative on February 26, with 369 declining stocks against 291 gainers, while 781 other stocks remained unchanged.

 

As many as 17 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation advanced in the VN30 Index.

 

The VN30 Index was up 0.89 percent to 1.099,71 points, with more than 100.6 million shares exchanged, worth 4.67 trillion VND.

 

Financial-banking and oil stocks were the best-performing among the 20 sectors in the stock market, with the banking and energy industry indices advancing 0.69 percent and 1.71 percent, respectively, according to vietstock.vn.

 

Blue chip stocks were in strong demand and pulled up the VN-Index, as well as the VN30, especially in the ATC session, including Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (HPG), up 4.55 percent, Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VRE), moving up 6.59 percent, Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX), rising 6.76 percent, PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), advancing 2.17 percent and PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), up 2.17 percent.

 

The momentum of the market slowed down at the end of the trading day as some stocks faced strong profit taking pressure such as Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG).

 

Today’s market was partially driven by Vietnam’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Some of the stocks that were expected to qualify for the ETF Portfolio in Q1 2018 sharply increased today, namely VRE and PLX. On the other side, other shares like GTN, FLC and HSG are expected to leave the holding lists of these ETFs.

 

Foreign investors were net sellers of 173.61 billion VND on HOSE, focused on VNM (68.9 billion VND), VCB (61.8 billion VND) and HDB (30.9 billion VND). In addition, they sold a net of 11.66 billion VND on the HNX.-VNA