VNStockNews.com - Vietnam's stocks rose, driving the benchmark index up the most in Asia, after a newspaper report that inflation will slow and as a state utility said it will delay an increase in power tariffs.
The benchmark VN Index jumped 3.4 percent to 435.69 on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange as of the 11 a.m. local-time close. The gauge rose for a fifth straight day, the longest sequence of gains since Jan. 21. It fell 12 percent last month, the most since November 2009.
Consumer prices may rise by between 1 percent and 1.2 percent this month from May after international commodity prices dropped, the state-run Lao Dong newspaper reported today, citing a Ministry of Industry and Trade forecast. Prices rose 2.21 percent in May from April. Vietnam Electricity won't request higher retail power rates when regulations allowing quarterly adjustments come into effect today, Hanoi-based Deputy General Director Dang Hoang An said in a phone interview yesterday.
"There have been some forecasts that inflation may slow this month," said Nguyen Dinh Quang, Hanoi-based head of the investment strategy and advisory department at VNDirect Securities Corp. "Moreover, the fact that power prices won't rise from today, contrary to earlier speculation, may also ease investor concerns about price increases."
Asia's worst-performing market has dropped 10 percent this year. Stocks plunged last month on concern higher borrowing costs will crimp corporate earnings and economic growth. The State Bank of Vietnam boosted the repurchase rate to 15 percent on May 17, the sixth increase this year. Consumer prices in Vietnam rose 19.78 percent in May from a year earlier, the fastest pace since December 2008.
Vincom Joint-Stock Co., Vietnam's biggest listed property company, jumped for a fourth day, rising 4.5 percent to 116,000 dong, a two-week high. Masan Group Corp., which has financial services, consumer staples and natural resources businesses, surged by the daily limit of 5 percent to 106,000 dong, the biggest advance since April 21. (Bloomberg)
