The VN-Index fell slightly in early trading yesterday but recovered late in the session to close at 527.27, an overall gain on the day of 1.18 per cent.
The results marked the fifth straight day of rising sessions on the HCM City Stock Exchange.
The value of trades reached VND2.7 trillion (US$141.4 million), an increase of 17 per cent over the previous session's value, on a volume of 61.2 million shares. Sacombank (STB) was the most-active share on the southern bourse, with over 2.6 million shares changing hands.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also increased by 0.86 per cent, ending the session at 172.70. Volume rose by nearly 15 per cent to over 33 million shares, while value advanced by over 22 per cent to VND1.14 trillion ($59.7 million).
While PetroVietnam Construction Company (PVX) led the northern bourse with a volume of over 4.5 million shares, Kim Long Securities Company (KLS) saw buy orders for 7.8 million shares, far below Monday's record of 22 million but still an impressive figure. KLS shares stuck to their ceiling price throughout the session, even though only 191,400 shares were traded.
"The company's impending stock split has attracted investors to buy on the expectation of higher prices afterward, particularly when tomorrow is the deadline for shareholders to register for the additional issue," wrote FPT Securities Company analysts in their daily report.
Though a part of investors started a fire-sale in seek of realising profit in cash, share demand steadily rose, absorbing almost sales and keeping the market liquidity at high level, those analysts said.
Notably, investment capital seemed to shift from finance shares to steel and seafood shares. Sacombank (STB) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) stalled with negligible value increase, while steel producer Hoa Sen Group (HSG), seafood processor Hung Vuong Corp. (HVG), Mekongfishco (AAM) and Aquatex Ben Tre (ABT) all hit their ceiling prices.
"Steel and seafood shares increased thanks to recent supporting information such as steel price increase of VND600,000 ($31.4) per tonne from beginning of March and bright export potential of seafood products," said Le Hoa, a HCM City-based independent analyst.
Foreign investors continued to be net buyers yesterday on the both bourses, responsible for a net buy of nearly 4 million shares, worth a combined over VND235 billion ($12.3 billion).