The first trading session of the last week before the market entered the long Lunar New Year holiday was quite dull. The psychology of the Tet holiday is approaching, making the market trading gloomy, liquidity sharply decreased and the VN-Index only fluctuated slightly around the reference level.
Closing the session on February 9, VN-Index decreased by 0.67 points (-0.04%), to 1,754.82 points. Total trading volume reached more than 726.4 million units, value of 20,037 billion VND, down 35.75% in volume and 43% in value compared to the last session of the previous week on February 6. 2. Foreign investors' transactions are a minus point when net selling is about 235 billion VND.
The Vingroup group continued to strongly dominate the general index. VIC increased by 1%, contributing more than 2 points to the VN-Index, while VHM led the list of stocks that held the index down the most with a decrease of 2.6%.
In addition, the market has seen a few bright spots belonging to the real estate stock group when strong demand absorption helped many stocks surge.
In the banking group, strong selling pressure focused on Sacombank (STB) shares. This code lost 2%, down to 60,300 VND. BID, MSB, CTG, SHB and EIB ranked behind each other with decreases of 0.7-1.5%. HDB, KLB and MBB are a few stocks against the market flow, closing up 0.7-1%.
In terms of capitalization, the VN30 group continued to differentiate with 12 gainers and 14 losers, closing the session this group's index still increased slightly by more than 4 points. In which, VHM decreased the most by 2.6%, being the most influential code when taking away 2.1 points of the general index; conversely, DGC still increased best in the bluechip basket, reaching 2.9%, but VIC was the main driving force when contributing 2.1 points to the market and closing the session this code increased by 1%.
In the current context, the trend of differentiation is likely to continue to be maintained in the near-Tet trading week, when investor sentiment tends to be cautious and prioritize short-term opportunities with high selectivity.
Cash flow tends to find the group of mid-cap and small-cap stocks with their own story such as positive business results prospects in 2026 or policy benefits, because the valuation level is not too high and the fluctuation range is attractive enough for short-term trading.
Conversely, the bluechip stock group, especially large-cap stocks leading the index (such as Vingroup stock group, enterprises/banks with high state ownership ratios such as BID, VCB, GAS, PLX...) may go sideways after undergoing profit-taking pressure after the previous increase period, and at the same time lacking strong enough supporting information in the short term. The leading role of the bluechip group is expected to be clearer after the Tet holiday.
Regarding the investment strategy in the current period, in the trading week before the Lunar New Year holiday, market liquidity will tend to be more quiet, VN-Index and stocks may move sideways to consolidate the price base.
Therefore, in the short term, investors should limit the use of margin, instead they can take advantage of market corrections to disburse with industry groups, stocks with internal strength and real profit growth prospects such as Banking, Construction & Materials, Retail, Oil and Gas.
After the Lunar New Year holiday, large cash flow may enter and activate a new price increase phase more strongly and clearly. That will be the next buying time if investors want to increase the stock ratio.
