The nation's stock exchanges saw their strongest single-day increases since the beginning of this year, with the VN-Index making a gain of 15.41 points, or 3.59 per cent, to end the day at 444.55.
Advancers outnumbered decliners on the HCM City Stock Exchange by 242 -11, although the value of trades remained meagre at just VND842.1 billion (US$43.2 million), on a volume of 33.8 million shares.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index skyrocketed by 5.58 per cent to close at 124.88 points, although value on the northern bourse also remained modest at just VND471.1 billion ($24.1 million), with 20.2 million shares traded. Over 240 codes rose to their ceiling prices.
Nguyen Hoai Phuong, a broker with a Ha Noi-based securities company, said news from the Bank of Japan and US Federal Reserve overnight helped spur local confidence.
"The strong increase in the indices alongside declining volumes have created concerns of a bull trap," she said. "However, about 9.5 million shares waiting on matching orders in HCM City suggested that the poor trading volume was due to a lack of attention from sellers."
Sales began slowing at mid-session as sellers held onto stocks in hopes of higher profits, due to the massive number of buy orders flowing in, Phuong said.
Nguyen Quang Trung, an investor with VPBank Securities, suggested that the possible delay in imposing Circular No.13 on banks might have been more central to yesterday's market gains. The circular would subject commercial banks to stricter capital adequacy and other risk management requirements.
Trung said he heard the news on a number of stock forums. "I haven't seen any official announcement about it, but it may be possible that the Government required the State Bank to revise it."
Le Thi Huong Ly, deputy head of research for APEC Securities Company, agreed that possible changes to Circular 13 were nourishing investor expectations.
But investors shouldn't become overexcited as the news had not been confirmed, Ly said, suggesting investors carefully watch for market moves over the next several days.
Foreign investors bucked the rising trend in shares yesterday, becoming sellers on both stock exchanges by a net of 1.6 million shares worth VND26.9 billion ($1.4 million).