At the close today [February 17], the first trading session after Tet holiday, the benchmark Vn-Index surged by 40.85 points or 3.66% to 1,155.78, in turn extending the growth momentum from a rise of 31.75 points or 2.93% at the last session before the country’s largest festive period.

Investors at a securities firm in Hanoi. Photo: Viet Dung

The liquidity on the stock market reached an estimated of VND16 trillion (US$690.2 million) today, while foreign investors became net buyers in both three stock exchanges of Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), and the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) with a combined transaction value of VND700 billion (US$30.2 million), focusing on bluechips such as VHM, VRE, KBC, HPG, and FUEVFVND.

Stocks from the banking sectors, including ACB, BID, CTG, MBB, VPB, TCB, HDB, also attracted investors, but those of petroleum companies were the highlight of this morning trading session with many reaching the ceiling, namely PVB, PVC, PVD, PVS, PVT, or PXS.

A positive sentiment also spread to stocks from other sectors of real estate, construction, industrial parks, securities, or telecommunications, in turn heating up the stock market on the first trading day.

Since the Vn-Index plunged to a historic slump of 73.23 points late January, or a decline of 6.67% from the previous session, to 1,023.94, the market has been on a strong recovery trend and ended at 1,114.93 at the last trading session before Tet (February 9), up over 31 points, or 2.93% against the previous session.

As of late January, total number of shares listed on the stock market amounted to 101 billion with the market capitalization of over VND3,900 trillion (US$169.3 billion), up 3.32% month-on-month and equivalent to 62.69% of the GDP in 2020.