Vietnamese jeweler PNJ shares hit ceiling after diamond smuggling case update

PNJ shares hit their daily ceiling at VND39,900 ($1.52) each by the end of the Friday morning session.

More than 3.4 million PNJ shares changed hands, while sell orders were nearly exhausted.

The shares rose after Thanh Hoa police announced the examination results for all evidence seized in a diamond smuggling case.

The examination found that the seized stones included natural and synthetic diamonds.

Investigators determined that Dang Ngoc Thao, former director of wholly owned subsidiary P-Lab, and several employees had colluded with Indian nationals to smuggle diamonds from Hong Kong, China into Vietnam.

Investigators said the diamonds were sold to individual customers and were not distributed through PNJ's retail network.

The investigation found that PNJ had complete import documents for its diamonds.

It also found that the company's diamond import and distribution processes were controlled, matched the relevant documents and complied with the law.

On July 24, PNJ shares fell to VND30,750 ($1.17), their lowest level in more than five years.

At the current VND39,900, the shares had gained nearly 30% from that low.

Market edges higher, securities stocks rally

The VN-Index rose 4.89 points, or 0.28 percent, to 1,739.13 by the end of Friday morning, while the VN30-Index gained 9.19 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,896.25. 

The HNX-Index fell 0.9 points to 277.65, while the UPCoM-Index rose 0.51 points to 127.75.

Trading value on the three exchanges totaled about VND5.64 trillion ($214.6 million), with more than 235.9 million shares changing hands. 

The market recorded 308 gainers, 245 decliners and 18 stocks at their daily price ceilings.

Vietcombank (VCB) contributed 0.72 points to the VN-Index's gain, followed by Vinhomes (VHM) with 0.44 points and BIDV (BID) with 0.4 points. 

FPT and Masan Group (MSN) each added 0.37 points, while DMX, GAS and LPB dragged the index down by 0.84, 0.56 and 0.32 points, respectively.

Brokerage stocks led gains, with VIX Securities (VIX) rising 4.35 percent, SSI Securities (SSI) 3.35 percent, VNDirect (VND) 2.22 percent, and Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS) 2.04 percent.

SSI gained after board member Nguyen Hong Nam registered to buy five million SSI shares between August 25 and September 22. If completed, the purchase would raise his holdings to more than 15.3 million shares, or over 0.614 percent of SSI's outstanding shares.

Banking stocks also advanced, led by ACB's 0.91 percent gain, followed by BID at 0.7 percent, VCB at 0.69 percent, VPBank (VPB) at 0.6 percent and Techcombank (TCB) at 0.32 percent.

Property stocks rose, with VHM up 0.72 percent, Vincom Retail (VRE) 1.24 percent, Becamex IDC (BCM) 2.34 percent and DIG Corp. (DIG) 2.43 percent.

Retail stocks were mixed, with Mobile World Investment (MWG) rising 1.38 percent and Masan Group (MSN) 1.62 percent, while Vinamilk (VNM) fell 0.63 percent. 

Industrial stocks mostly gained, led by Vinafreight (VSC) at 3.15 percent, Gelex Electric (GEE) at 2.62 percent and Gelex Group (GEX) at 2.24 percent.

Brokerage stocks rose ahead of FTSE Russell's expected announcement on Friday of its September 2026 semiannual review of the FTSE GEIS Index Series.

Circular No. 08/2026/TT-BTC, which removes restrictions on non-margin trading, is expected to facilitate trading by international institutional investors and support market liquidity and securities companies.