An investor looks at stock prices on a smartphone at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index rose 1.07% on Monday morning to cross the 1,600 milestone for the first time.
Around 90 minutes into the session, the index was at 1,602, around 16 points higher than the previous session’s closing of 1,584.95.
By that point, trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, on which the index is based, had amounted to VND20 trillion (US$762.5 million).
Of the VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, MSN of conglomerate Masan Group reached its ceiling price.
Other stocks in the consumer goods and retailing sector, such as VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, MWG of electronics retail chain Mobile World and SAB of brewer Sabeco, also rose by 1%.
Five blue chips dropped over 1%. Of these, VRE of retail real estate arm Vincom Retail, TPB of private TPBank and STB of Ho Chi Minh City-based lender Sacombank saw the biggest drops, of 1.3-1.8%.
Most securities companies had previously forecast that VN-Index would rise past 1,600 early this week and could even hit 1,650 if capital inflow remains strong.
