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HAGL rises 20 percent on debut, propels market up
Ho Chi Minh City shares closed marginally higher Monday after getting a boost from the central bank’s key rate cut and falling prices in HCMC and Hanoi.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL), a major wood processor and real estate developer, gained the maximum allowed 20 percent on listing with expectations of high earnings growth next year, traders said.
The VN-Index advanced 2.79 points, or 0.91 percent, to finish at 310.05 as trades worth VND646 billion (US$38 million) were completed. Gainers outnumbered losers 99 to 45.
The State Bank of Vietnam slashed its benchmark interest rate to 8.5 percent from 10 percent, effective Monday, to help businesses amid an economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, the consumer price index dropped 0.42 percent this month over November in HCMC and 1.3 percent in Hanoi.
After being net buyers to the tune of VND69.2 billion ($4 million) last week, foreign investors Monday turned net sellers as they disposed of shares worth VND6.2 billion ($364,800). Shipping firm Gemadept Corporation, light bulb maker Rang Dong and PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Joint-Stock Company were among the stocks they dumped.
HAGL stocks rose to VND48,000, up from its listing reference price of VND40,000, valuing the company based in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak at VND8.6 trillion ($506 million).
“The advance of the company is what we anticipated,” said Phung Trung Kien, a Hanoi-based analyst at VPBank Securities Inc., a unit of Vietnam Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Private Enterprises.
“VND40,000 is a reasonable reference price compared with the company’s real value,” Kien said.
Nguyen Minh Duc, head of Institutional Investors at Thang Long Securities in Hanoi, said: “Investors were driven by HAGL's great earning outlook from its real estate sales in HCMC and wood-processing projects in Laos.”
Traders said HAGL forecast last week its net profit next year would jump 56 percent from 2008 to VND2.8 trillion ($169 million). HAGL also pledged to raise its dividend to nearly 50 percent next year from 11.1 percent expected this year.
Other stocks
PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Joint-Stock Company (PVD) added VND3,000, or 4.4 percent, to close at a three-week high of VND70,500. PetroVietnam Finance Company registered to buy 5 million PVD shares by February to increase its holding in PVD to 14.7 million shares, according to a company statement on the bourse’s website.
Saigon Telecommunication & Technologies Corporation advanced VND1,200, or 4.8 percent, to VND26,400. Tran Thi Hoai Thu, wife of general director Huynh Ngoc Huy Pho, registered to buy 39,000 shares by January to raise her holding to 50,000 shares, according to a statement posted on the bourse’s website.
Thao Vi
Reuters, Bloomberg
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