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.