The HCM City Stock Exchange began a new week yesterday with a modest gain of just over 1 per cent, with the VN-Index increasing to 486.95 points on continued sluggish trading.
Gainers outnumbered losers by 114-53, but the volume of the day's trades fell by another 10 per cent from Friday's session to under 22.5 million shares, worth just VND985.85 billion (US$52.4 million). Eximbank (EIB) led the market with over a million shares changing hands. On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also rose, but by an even slighter 0.55 per cent to 161.23 points. Trading volume dropped by 19 per cent to 23 million shares, worth a total of VND420.76 billion ($22.4 million). Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) remained the most-active share on the northern bourse, responsible for 1.8 million shares traded.
"Trading volume continued to be sluggish and trades only became busy at the late in the session", said an analyst from Au Viet Securities Co who asked to remain anonymous. He also noted that the announcement of positive earnings data by many listed companies no longer had an impact on the market as the expected performance was already reflected in the share prices.
"The market is likely to tread water during the remaining time leading up to the Tet holiday,"said FPT Securities Co analysts in their daily report.
Investors were still worried and cautious about economic situation as well as the impact of the recent downfall of many international stock exchanges on the domestic market, the report said.