Hanoi (VNA)🧸 - Vietnamese shares struggled to close mixed on June 27, covering some losses as local stocks were attractive to investors after plunging on Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) last week.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.1 percent to finish at 621.27 points, rebounding from a plunge in the early session and from a sharp loss of 1.8 percent on June 24. Britain’s exit of the EU continued to negatively impact investor confidence and pushed local markets down deeper in the early session, Saigon-Hanoi Securities Corp (SHS) wrote in its daily report. “The southern market bounced back strongly as June 24’s sharp fall made large-cap stocks attractive to investors,” SHS said. Those stocks included information and technology firm FPT Corp (FPT), steel producers Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG), and property and retail company Vingroup JSC (VIC). FPT edged up 0.7 percent, especially after the company’s profit in the first five months exceeded this year’s plan by 9 percent. HSG and HPG increased by 1.5 percent and 0.5 percent on expectations that their earnings will increase in the second quarter of the year. VIC jumped 3.3 percent on the ex-dividend date, on which the company issued 213 million shares to pay dividend to shareholders for last year’s performance. Other blue chips also made gains to lift the southern market up, including insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Service Corp (PVD). The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange managed to cover some losses made during the day, ending down 0.1 percent at 83.53 points. The northern market index has dropped 2.1 percent after the last two sessions. Stocks that supported the northern bourse were Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), insurer PVI Holdings (PVI), Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corp (VCG) and Saigon Thuong Tin Real Estate JSC (SCR). Those stocks rose between 0.4 percent and 1.6 percent. On the opposite side, big companies such as Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Tien Phong Plastic JSC (NTP) and Vicostone JSC (VCS) were down. These stocks were down 0.5 percent, 3.5 percent and 2 percent, respectively. As the US dollar became stronger on the global markets, Vietnam’s central bank on June 27 raised its daily reference mid-point rate for foreign exchange by 21 VND to 21,866 VND for a dollar. With the current trading band of plus or minus 3 percent applied for the rate, a dollar can domestically be traded between 21,210 VND and 22,522 VND. Almost all commercial banks increased the dollar rates in the morning, reported Nhip cau Dau tu (Investment Bridge) online. Vietcombank listed the buying price at 22,310 VND per dollar and the selling price at 22,380 VND per dollar, both 15 VND higher than the previous session’s levels, while VietinBank maintained the selling price at 22,370 VND per dollar, but increased the buying price by 30 VND at 22,300 VND per dollar. Investors exchanged more than 155.7 million shares worth 2.68 trillion VND (119.2 million USD), a decrease of 26 percent from last week’s daily trading value.-VNA