The Dow Jones passing over 10,300 points overnight helped cheer up trading on Friday on the HCM City Stock Exchange and kept the VN-Index from dipping below the psychologically-important 500-mark.
The Index closed essentially unchanged at 500.31 points, but trading value fell by 19.9 per cent from Thursday's level to an anaemic VND1.17 trillion (US$61.6 million) on a volume of just 39.3 million shares.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also trod water, gaining just 0.2 per cent on the day to close at 157.99 points. The value of trades fell to VND1 trillion ($52.6 million) on a volume of 32.8 million.
"Our view is that the Vietnamese markets are range-bound and their fates rest on what happens on the world markets," said Sacombank Securities Company analyst Nguyen Thanh Hai.
Ocean Securities Company analysts said that it was common for a turnaround to occur whenever the VN-Index sank to 500, and the markets were signaling a recovery after a couple of days running in place.
Capital inflows seemed to be shifting from penny stocks and mid-caps to large-cap shares, they said, recommending investors buy into blue chips which have previously declined sharply.
Sacombank (STB) regained its spot yesterday as the most-active share on the HCM City market, with 1.85 million changing hands, while in Ha Noi, PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) saw again the biggest volume, with 3.7 million traded.
Foreign investors were largely inactive on both national stock exchanges. They bought a net of 130,000 shares, worth just VND16.7 billion ($878,947), in HCM City, while selling off 20,000 shares in Ha Noi, worth a net of VND3 billion.