Vietnam Insight

Stable market performance. US stock futures climbed on Thursday after Nvidia delivered a bullish sales outlook, signaling that artificial intelligence-driven demand could remain strong through 2028. Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 1%, while Dow and S&P 500 futures each gained around 0.5%. In extended trading, Nvidia shares surged more than 4% following better-than-expected Q2 results and strong revenue guidance, with its outlook providing fresh evidence that spending on AI infrastructure remains robust. Salesforce also jumped nearly 13% after reporting higher-than-expected Q2 revenue, while Okta soared 20% after topping estimates and citing booming demand for agentic AI. Investors now await more earnings reports on Thursday from Workday, Autodesk, MongoDB, Dollar General and Best Buy, among others. In regular trading on Wednesday, the Dow fell 0.21%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.02% and 0.08%, respectively.

Trading sideways within a wide range, with 1,900 as key resistance. VN-Index ended the session at 1,821.32 points, up 29.91 points (+1.67%), with trading volume above the 20-session average. 182 stocks advanced, while 125 declined. VIC, TCB, and VCB were the top positive contributors to the index, while VPL, LPS, and MSB exerted the largest negative impact. Foreign investors recorded net selling of VND11 billion, mainly concentrated in CTG and ACB.

Trading Strategy: Investors may take advantage of market pullbacks to gradually accumulate positions while maintaining a prudent cash allocation to manage risk and preserve flexibility to increase exposure once a market recovery is confirmed. Investors should avoid using margin to bottom-fish, as the market may still be in the process of forming a second bottom. In addition, technical rebound sessions provide an opportunity to rebalance portfolios by reducing exposure to companies whose business performance has fallen short of expectations.

Current portfolio: MBB, POW, NVL; Watchlist: HPG, REE, BVH, GAS and securities stock (HCM, SSI, VCI…)

High-risk stocks to avoid: HDG