HCM City’s shares advanced on Monday after two declining sessions last week, but liquidity continued to drop, showing lingering caution among investors ahead of Q2 earnings season.

On the Hồ Chí Minh City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index increased by 0.47 per cent to close at 1,125.5 points. It lost nearly 1 per cent last week.

Liquidity continued to drop. More than 558 million shares worth VNĐ10.8 trillion (US$456 million) were traded, down 10 per cent in volume and 14 per cent in value compared to Friday’s levels.

According to analysts at Viet Dragon Securities Co (VDSC), declining liquidity implied caution and hesitation of both supply and demand.

“However, the current sell-off after the drops has not been significant enough to put pressure on the market,” VDSC’s analyst Phương Phạm said in a note, suggesting investors pay attention to the supply pressure at the range of 1,130-1,135 points.

The market breadth was positive, with the number of gainers outnumbering the losers by 253 to 169. Another 86 closed unchanged.

By sectors, 20 stock groups posted gains against five declining, data tracked by vietstock.vn showed. In which, seafood stocks were the biggest gainers with average growth of 5 per cent.

According to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), total export value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in the first half of this year reached $24.6 billion, down 11 per cent year-on-year. In which, seafood export fetched only $4.13 billion, down 27.4 per cent year-on-year.

Yet, there is a gradual recovery when tracking seafood export value from month to month. VASEP said inventories are decreasing and global demand is forecast to increase in the second half of the year.

Many industry stocks gained substantially such as Cửu Long Fish (ACL, up 4.9 per cent), Nam Việt (ANV, up 4.5 per cent), Camimex Group (CMX, up 4.7 per cent, Sao Ta Food (FMC, up 4 per cent), I.D.I International Investment & Develoment (IDI, up 3.1 per cent) and Vĩnh Hoàn Corp (VHC, up 6.9 per cent).

Meanwhile, blue chips were mixed. In the banking sector, BIDV (BID) topped the shares which lifted the VN-Index most, up 2.7 per cent, Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Eximbank (EIB) led the group that pulled the VN-Index down most.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index closed 0.32 per cent down at 226.60 points. This was the seventh losing session in a row on the northern bourse with a total loss of 2.3 per cent.

Nearly 80 million shares worth VNĐ1.2 trillion were exchanged here, up 14 per cent in volume but down 8 per cent in value compared to the previous sesson.

Foreign investors were net buyers on both exchanges, picking up shares worth combined VNĐ158 billion.

Viet Nam News