Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index surged 1.72 percent to a new peak of 1,488.87 points Wednesday, with banking stocks leading blue chip stock growth for the second time this week.
The index started off the morning in the green and continued to gradually climb throughout the day, closing 25 points higher. This is its biggest gain in four weeks.
“I’m grateful for investor’s ever strong enthusiasm which drives VN-Index to continued all time highs”, Le Hai Tra, the CEO at Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) said.
Trading value on the HoSE, on which the index is based, surged nearly 37 percent to VND35.87 trillion ($1.58 billion).
The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 21 tickers in the green, led by seven banking tickers.
MBB of lender MB shot up 6.9 percent to the highest in three months, with trading volume tripling from the average of the last 10 sessions.
STB of HCMC-based lender Sacombank gained 6.8 percent to the highest since Aug. 10.
Other banking stocks that gained included VCB of state-owned lender Vietcombank, up 5.8 percent, and TCB of largest private lender Techcombank, up 5.5 percent.
Meanwhile, HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group continued its downward trend with a 1.8 percent drop, while GAS of state-owned Petrovietnam Gas shed 1.5 percent.
Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of VND973 billion, focusing on VPB of private lender VPBank and VCI of Viet Capital Securities.
The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 1.56 percent while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market gained 1.42 percent, VNExpress’s Dat Nguyen reported.