Vietnam - Shares climb on increased foreign holdings

Indications that foreign holdings in listed companies will likely to increase helped extend share gains on both exchanges on January 25.

Under the current regulation, foreign holdings in listed companies are capped at 49 percent.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index soared 3.47 percent to close January 25’s session at 468.09 points while the VN30 was up 2.86 percent at 547.31 points.

Trading value more than doubled January 24, totaling VND1.31 trillion ($62.7 million) on a total volume of 86.5 million shares.

Foreign investors were net buyers on the bourse, picking up shares worth nearly VND181 billion ($8.7 million). The top 10 shares by net buy value were also the top 10 shares by market capitalization and liquidity on the exchange.

Tan Tao Industry Investment (ITA) continued to be the most active share on total trades of 10.7 million shares, rising 6 percent to VND7,100 a share.

According to many stock analysts, in order to sustain the gains, the market needs to be supported by something besides the expectation of new government policies, which had been mostly priced in at the last rally.

"New factors must be more specific, rather than general solutions that investors already knew," said Nguyen Xuan Binh, analyst of Bao Viet Securities Co, who expected the increase of foreign holdings in listed companies to continue to uphold the market.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose by a more modest 0.72 percent to finish the session at 61.61 points on a total turnover of VND541.2 billion ($25.9 million).

Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) was again the most heavily-traded stock here with 12.7 million shares changing hands, closing flat at VND6,700 a share.

VNA

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