The market had a notable week when it surpassed 1,300 points with positive liquidity. Cash flow has signals flowing into steel industry stocks, when the effectiveness of the anti-inflation tax is about to take effect, thereby attracting a series of names such as TLH, NKG, HSG, VGS, SMC to increase sharply.
The market recorded the sixth consecutive week of increase and surpassed the 1,300-point resistance level with quite good liquidity. At the end of the trading week, the VN-Index increased by 8.61 points (+0.66%) to 1,305.36 points, the trading volume on HOSE increased by 13.1% compared to the previous week.
Regarding foreign transactions, foreign capital flows continued to sell strongly at the beginning of the week, including a sudden sell-off session worth thousands of billions on the weekend. Accumulated after 5 sessions, foreign investors net sold VND 2,747 billion in the whole market.
According to statistics according to stock codes, the focus of net selling this week was recorded at FPT technology stocks with a value of VND 472 billion. Also in the sell price, the market recorded two stocks, STB and HPG, being net sold for VND415 billion and VND370 billion, respectively. The net selling list also recorded VCB and TPB bank stocks with a value of about VND264 billion and VND193 billion. On the other hand, MWG stock code was unexpectedly net bought the most by foreign investors with VND559 billion. Foreign capital flows also flowed into VNM and VCI stocks with values of 173 billion and 85 billion respectively, and net bought GVR with 79 billion VND.
Notably, the strong release of foreign stocks in steel is going against the market price picture of this group of stocks. For example, just about 2 weeks after the slip after the statement of US President Donald Trump, shares of HPG- encoded Hoa Phat Steel increased by 12%. Hoa Phat's market capitalization also increased by nearly 20,000 billion, to approximately 182,000 billion VND. Mr. Tran Dinh Long's family's assets also increased by nearly 7,000 billion VND, of which Chairman Hoa Phat alone "dethroned" more than 5,000 billion VND after 2 weeks
However, in these sessions, stocks increased sharply, and foreign investors increased their selling pressure. Since the beginning of the year, foreign investors have net sold nearly VND500 billion worth of HPG shares. Looking further, leading steel stocks have been net sold by foreign investors for 9 consecutive months. However, selling pressure has somewhat cooled down compared to the end of the third quarter of 2024.
Foreign investors are still continuously selling steel stocks despite the prospects for the steel industry in general and Hoa Phat in particular having many positive points. The analysis report of MBS Securities Company believes that applying anti-dumping taxes will help Vietnamese steel industry enterprises regain market share in the context of fierce competition in the domestic market.
In the first two months of 2025, ETF capital flows in Asian stock markets have clearly differentiated. The Chinese and Hong Kong (China) stock markets were net withdrawn quite strongly as investors worried about trade tensions between the US and China. Meanwhile, many markets have begun to have an improvement in ETF capital flows in February, typically Japan, Taiwan (China), and South Korea.
For Southeast Asia, except for Vietnam, other key markets have recorded net capital inflows.
In the first 2 months of the year, ETFs in the Vietnamese market were net withdrawn with a total value of about VND 1,476 billion, of which the majority of this net withdrawal came from foreign ETF funds with VND 1,032 billion.
Phu Hung Securities Company (PHS) expects the Vietnamese market to soon record the return of foreign capital and at the same time, ETFs will also attract capital back. The main motivation will come from two stories: boosting economic growth and upgrading the market.
