Foreign investors end their streak of net selling Hoa Phat shares.

After 22 consecutive sessions of net selling Hoa Phat (HPG) shares, foreign investors returned to net buying of nearly 4.26 billion VND in this week's final trading session.

Shares of Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (stock code: HPG) closed the trading session on Friday (September 6th) at VND 25,400, up 1.4% from the reference price. Thanks to positive foreign investment in this stock, HPG closed in the green after a series of 7 consecutive days of decline.

Specifically, of the 22.85 million HPG shares traded during the last trading session of the week, foreign investors accounted for approximately 8.5 million shares. This group disbursed 108 billion VND to purchase nearly 4.32 million shares, while selling approximately 4.15 million shares, equivalent to nearly 103.8 billion VND. The net purchase value therefore reached 4.26 billion VND.

Today's trading session marks the return of foreign investors to net buying Hoa Phat shares after a period of intense selling that lasted from August 5th. Foreign investors had previously sold a net total of 2,530 billion VND worth of shares, representing a net selling value of the leading steel company.

During the 22-session selling streak, foreign investors sold net more than 200 billion VND in 4 sessions, while most other sessions saw net sales exceeding 100 billion VND. The peak net selling session in this streak was on August 22nd, when the value of sell-offs reached over 245 billion VND. The August 8th session recorded the lowest disbursement value during this sell-off, with foreign investors buying less than 2 billion VND.

HPG's share price has fluctuated since foreign investors aggressively sold off their holdings. The stock has fallen by approximately 7% since the start of the trading session and has lost more than 20% compared to its two-year peak reached in May 2024 (32,000 VND). The average trading volume over the last 10 sessions is around 20 million shares.

At a time when Hoa Phat shares were being heavily sold off by foreign investors, many domestic securities companies still highly rated the stock's potential for price appreciation. In a report published more than half a month ago, the expert group of Agribank Securities Joint Stock Company (Aseco) recommended increasing the weighting of HPG shares with a target price of VND 32,000 per share. This projection represents a 26% increase compared to the current price range.

Agriseco Research expects HPG's business results to continue recovering thanks to momentum from the domestic real estate market and increased public investment. This assessment is based on the expectation that HPG's sales volume will continue to improve with contributions from domestic construction steel and that its gross profit margin will improve due to lower input material prices.

According to the Vietnam Steel Association, the construction industry's growth in the first six months of the year reached 7.34% compared to the same period last year, and the real estate market in the second quarter of this year continued to show signs of recovery in supply. In addition, the Land Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law, effective from August 1st, are expected to help increase domestic demand for construction steel.

Regarding business performance, for the first half of the year, Hoa Phat recorded net revenue of approximately VND 70,408 billion, an increase of 25.5% compared to the same period last year. Gross profit exceeded VND 9,401 billion, with a gross profit margin of 13.3%. Pre-tax profit for this period reached VND 6,994 billion, and after- tax profit was approximately VND 6,189 billion, both more than three times higher than the first six months of 2023.

HPG's leadership believes that the Vietnamese and global economies still face many uncertainties, with unclear signs of recovery, and fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates, and other factors in the global market. The company aims for revenue of VND 140,000 billion and after-tax profit of VND 10,000 billion, representing increases of 16% and 47% respectively compared to 2023. After half a year, the company has completed 50.3% of its business plan and 62% of its profit target.

Previously, Hoa Phat issued over 580 million additional shares to existing shareholders, at a ratio of 10% (each shareholder owning 10 HPG shares will receive 1 new share). The issuance was funded from capital surplus of over VND 3,200 billion and undistributed after-tax profits of over VND 2,600 billion.

Following the issuance, Hoa Phat's charter capital increased by nearly 6,000 billion VND, from 58,100 billion VND to nearly 64,000 billion VND. Hoa Phat became the company with the second largest number of outstanding shares on the stock market with 6.4 billion shares, second only to VPBank with 7.9 billion shares.

Regarding future investment plans, Chairman Tran Dinh Long said that Hoa Phat has to tackle challenging tasks. Currently, the company is researching the production of silicon steel sheets for use in the manufacture of electric motors used in transformers and electric vehicles. Alongside this, they are also working on producing steel for railway tracks.

Besides the Dung Quat 2 Project , which is being urgently constructed, Hoa Phat Group is also planning to invest in a new integrated steel complex in Phu Yen - known as the Dung Quat 3 Project - with an investment scale of 5 billion USD.

As of the end of June, the company's total assets reached VND 206,609 billion. Liabilities amounted to over VND 97,932 billion, an increase of nearly VND 13,000 billion compared to the beginning of the period. The majority of the company's debt structure consists of short-term liabilities, totaling over VND 73,551 billion. Equity reached VND 108,676 billion, and undistributed after-tax profit was approximately VND 40,474 billion.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/khoi-ngoai-cat-chuoi-ban-rong-co-phieu-hoa-phat-d224221.html