Vietnamese shares moved up little on Thursday as retailers and food companies were boosted by the increase of August consumer price index (CPI).
The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.14 per cent to close at 978.59 points.
The VN-Index dropped as much as 0.40 per cent during the day.
According to the General Statistics Office, CPI in August is up 0.28 per cent from July – boosted by the increased consumption of pork.
CPI growth indicates purchasing power is good and people buy more products for consumption.
Therefore, the rise of CPI often indicates earnings of retailers and producers grow.
Though August CPI growth is the weakest in three years, it is enough to lift retail and food and beverage sector indices by 0.9 per cent and 2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.
Leading the two sectors up were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), brewer Sabeco (SAB), food and drink firm Masan (MSN), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), and Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (PNJ).
Those firm shares advanced between 0.3 per cent and 3 per cent.
The benchmark index was also supported by the gains of tech group FPT (FPT), property firm Vingroup (VIC), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).
Those large-cap stocks helped raise the VN30-Index up 0.34 per cent to 889.13 points at the end of the day.
On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was down 0.38 per cent to end at 101.94 points.
The northern market index fell 0.52 per cent in the previous session.
More than 156 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ3.6 trillion (US$155.3 million).
Foreign investors were net buyers for a second straight day and though purchases remained modest, it clearly had a positive impact on market sentiment.
Foreign investors net-bought total VNĐ14 billion worth of Vietnamese shares. They recorded VNĐ40 billion worth of net-purchase on Wednesday.
The market’s short-term prospects are quite positive, according to securities firms.
Most of investors were still cautious and the overall market condition was almost unchanged, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in its daily report.
The decline of trading liquidity in the last few days proved it had been difficult for both sellers and buyers to make decisions, VNDS said.
The market would need better stories to lure the capital back such as the State’s divestment of large-cap firms and the increase of foreign ownership limits in local banks, the company said.
There were still some bright spots at the moment among local stocks such as industrial park developers and logistics firms, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said.
However, the market would still be outweighed by low market confidence, which is caused by the uncertainty of the international markets, the company said. VNS
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