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VN-Index edges up before holiday
The VN-Index yesterday increased slightly by 2.09 points, or 0.69 per cent, to close at 303.21, as activity remained slow on the HCM City Stock Exchange on the final trading day before the Tet holiday.
Around 4.2 million shares changed hands, with a total turnover of VND106.7 billion (US$6.3 million). Maintenance and gains by the 10 biggest shares, including Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp (REE) helped the market stay ‘up’.
The most active stocks included Sacombank (STB) with 580,430 shares traded, Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) with 244,400 shares, and Prudential Balance Fund (PRUBF1) with about 180,000 fund certificates.
Foreign investors yesterday picked up 715,000 shares and unloaded 1.2 million units, with a net sale value of nearly VND12 billion ($706,000).
Ha Noi Securities Co said despite deeply slumped share prices, it was likely that the market would continue to stay steady.
"Some listed firms have posted good business results, but it’s obvious that worries remain about difficulties facing the economy this year... Investors are not much interested in the stock market at this time, especially when Tet is drawing near," the company wrote in a report.
"Government policies to stabilise the economy are extremely important for the market to stabilise," said State Securities Commission Chairman Vu Bang. "Impacts from the global financial turmoil are hard to predict, and questions remain about how long the impacts will last."
Bang said the commission would continue to improve the market in terms of legal frameworks and structures to facilitate its long-term development, alongside plans to lure FDI in the short term.
He said equitisation and initial public offerings (IPO) should be accelerated in order to add more quality shares to the market, in addition to restructuring and renewing enterprises, although these activities "are expected to continue to face difficulties in 2009."
In Ha Noi yesterday, the HASTC-Index once again fell below 100 points, closing at 99.93, after sliding 0.38 per cent on the day. Trading volume was 2.36 million shares worth VND53.5 billion ($3.1 million).
Activity on the northern market concentrated on Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) with 271,000 shares changing hands, Kim Long Securities (KLS) with 261,000 shares, and Vinashin Petroleum Investment and Transport (VSP) with 238,000.
VNS
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