VN Index ends 2017 at 10-year high

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares ended on a positive note on Friday as large-cap stocks remained positive and banks continued to draw investors’ attention for full-year earnings prospects.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.77 per cent to end 2017 at its fresh 10-year high of 984.24 points.

Việt Nam’s key stock index has increased by 48 per cent since the beginning of the year and it has rallied a total of 4 per cent after the last six sessions.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index edged up 0.39 per cent to close at 116.86 points.

The northern market index has risen nearly 46 per cent in total since the end of 2016 and it has notched a five-straight-day growth of 3.4 per cent.

Market trading condition was quite good in the last session of the year with 282 gaining stocks, 201 declining ones and 126 shares that closed flat.

Foreign investors posted a net buy value of VNĐ1.14 trillion, almost five-fold the figure that was recorded on Thursday.

Blue-chip stocks continued to trade positively as 20 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation in the VN30 group made gains.

The large-cap group VN30 Index was up 0.89 per cent to 975.52 points at the end of the day.

Banks, food and beverage companies, building contractors, construction material producers and retailers were among the sectors that had the best growth rates.

The five industry indices advanced between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

Six of the 10 listed banks saw their share prices up, including Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), VPBank (VPB) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB).

The four other sectors were driven up by top companies in their own industries such as FLC Faros Construction (ROS), steel producers Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), Coteccons Construction Corp (CTD) and food and beverage producer Masan (MSN).

On the opposite side, energy and insurance-finance stocks were hit by short-selling that aimed to help investors post some short profits.

Among those stocks were insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnam Coating (PVB).

According to FPT Securities Company, investors with short-term taste are looking for opportunities in financial-banking stocks, whose earnings are expected to increase on the strong growth of the securities market.

VPBank Securities Company (VPBS) wrote in a report that stocks are being priced in by investors’ expectations for quarterly corporate earnings to be higher than expected.

That confidence would continue motivating the market in early 2018 while there is relatively little information that could have strong impacts on the market, VPBS said. — VNS