Vietnamese shares bounced on Tuesday due to improved market sentiment but the outlook remained negative in the short term.

 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.10 per cent to end at 929.09 points.

 

The VN-Index lost a total of 6.38 per cent in the previous three trading days after it re-opened from the week-long Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday.

 

Nearly 198 million shares, worth VNĐ3.94 trillion (US$169.3 million), were traded on the southern bourse with 90 per cent of the total exchanged via order-matching deals.

 

Market sentiment improved as the US and Asian markets traded in positive territory on Tuesday, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co (SHS) said in its daily report.

 

Better confidence helped lift large-cap stocks as the blue-chip tracker VN30-Index gained 0.34 per cent to stand at 845.52 points at the end of the day.

 

Thirteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket increased while 15 declined.

 

Top earning large-caps included lenders Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), VPBank (VPB), HDBank (HDB) and BIDV (BID), airline Vietjet (VJC) and gold and jewellery retailer PNJ (PNJ).

 

The banking sector was the best-performing of the 25 sectors on the stock market, data on vietstock.vn showed.

 

The banking sector index rose 2.0 per cent, followed by technology, insurance, construction, electricity, and part supplying.

 

Since the opening day after Tết, the market had been weighed down by fears about the coronavirus and its negative impact on human health and the global economy.

 

According to SSI Research, the virus will have little impact on the insurance sector as people would seek insurance deals to deal with the virus, boosting insurers’ earnings. Meanwhile, bank stocks will be pulled down in the short term, but the prospects for the whole sector remain bright in 2020.

 

Vietinbank Securities Co and MB Securities Co said the recent declining streak of the market would be an opportunity for investors to hunt large-cap shares, which were drawn far from their peaks.

 

Among bank stocks that advanced on Tuesday, Vietinbank (CTG) surged 7.0 per cent, Military Bank (MBB) and VPBank (VPB) jumped nearly 4.0 per cent, HDBank (HDB) and BIDV (BID) gained 1.7 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively.

 

Those bank stocks have recovered after their prices were brought down on Thursday and Friday when the market was hit by fears about the spread of coronavirus.

 

However, investors were still cautious and this resulted in low trading liquidity, SHS said.

 

Market sentiment clearly improved but it was not strong enough to boost the market, the company said, adding the VN-Index may keep rising in the next two trading days.

 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased 1.25 per cent to end at 102.57 points.

 

The northern market index had plunged a total of 4.67 per cent since last Thursday.

 

More than 31 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ314.7 billion. — VNS