An investor looks at stock prices on a screen at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index rose 0.33% to 1,251.02 points Wednesday with trading value dropping to its lowest in nearly 15 months.
The index closed 4.07 points higher after gaining 0.60 points in the previous session.
Trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange decreased by 23% to VND10.206 trillion (US$402 million), the lowest since late October 2023.
The VN-30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 17 tickers gained.
SSB of SeABank rose 1.8%, MWG of electronics retail chain Mobile World saw a 1.8% increase, and POW of electricity producer Petrovietnam Power Corporation went up 1.7%.
Six blue chips fell. HDB of lender HDBank dropped 3.9%, FPT of IT giant FPT Corporation closed 1.2% lower, STB of Ho Chi Minh City-based lender Sacombank slid 0.5%.
Foreign investors were net seller to the tune of VND446 billion, mainly selling FPT and STB.
The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 0.40%, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market went up 0.57%.
Globally, European shares advanced slightly on Wednesday, led by heavyweight healthcare and financial stocks, while focus remained on the global monetary policy trend in the New Year, Reuters reported.
The pan-European STOXX 600 added 0.2%, hovering near its highest level in three weeks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5%. On Wall Street, all three main indexes finished lower as the economic and jobs data stoked inflation worries.
China’s blue chip CSI300 Index fell more than 1% to its lowest in more than three months on Wednesday in a stuttering start to the year that has seen regulators and authorities rush to soothe investors’ nerves.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped just over 1% to its lowest level since the end of November, while China’s yuan fell to a fresh 16-month low.
