Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung struck the gong symbolizing the opening of the first trading session of the Year of the Goat at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on February 24, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

In his speech, the PM hailed the securities market as a key component of raising capital for socio-economic development.

He urged the Finance Minister, Chairman of the State Securities Commission, ministries and agencies concerned to bring laws up to international standards and bring about a transparent and healthy business climate, as Vietnam steps up its negotiations and signing of various free trade agreements.

The leader asked that the project on restructuring securities market be effectively realised and for an accelerated pace of State-owned enterprise equitisation.

He closed by wishing the securities sector a year of sustainable and effective growth.

Market value climbs in new lunar year

Vietnamese stocks continued to increase in value as the first trading session of the new lunar year closed yesterday.

Total market turnover reached VND1.47 trillion (US$70.3 million) on a total volume of over 88.56 million shares, as investors were confident with the market's prospects.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index gained 1.65 per cent to reach 596.95 points.

The market turnover of the southern bourse was VND1.14 trillion ($54.6 million) with a volume of over 62.8 million shares.

Bank shares remained the focus of the trading session. The market saw a remarkable achievement in Vietcombank code (VCB) as it reached its ceiling price of VND39,000 ($1.85) for trading total 179,000 shares at the market's close.

Other bank codes, including the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG) and Military Bank (MBB), also raised their prices by between 2.16 and 4.49 per cent, to VND18,500, VND18,600 and VND14,200, respectively.

Blue chips, the 30 biggest stocks in terms of capitalisation and liquidity, had a mixed performance that helped raise the VN30 Index by 1.13 per cent to 624.17 points.

Of these 30 stocks, advancers outnumbered decliners by 22 to 3. Property developer FLC Group (FLC) was still the most active code with more than 11.6 million traded shares and an unchanged price of VND11,300. Its total trading value was VND131.8 billion ($6.27 million).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index reached 86.39 points, up 1.32 per cent.

Liquidity reached VND330 billion ($15.7 million) and more than 25.6 million shares.

The HNX30, comprising the northern bourse's 30 stocks, put on 1.11 per cent to 167.01 points.

KLF was the most active code on the market. It traded 3.7 million shares for a price that increased by 0.93 per cent.

Foreign investors yesterday purchased a total value of VND127.5 billion ($6 million) in two markets, a decrease of 28 per cent over the last session before the Tet holiday.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, foreign investors bought 3.3 million shares for VND120.5 billion ($5.7 million), while they bought 485,750 shares for VND6.5 billion ($309,500) on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange.

The codes that received the largest foreign investments were on the HCM City Stock Exchange, including BVH, VCB and BID, each of which was bought for total net value of VND5 billion ($238,000). 

Some photos of the opening session:

VNA/Dautuchungkhoan