Significant buys in blue chips helped the VN-Index reclaim the 500-mark on Thursday, with the Index gaining 1.79 per cent to close at 508.18.
The value of the day's trades on the HCM City Stock Exchange perked up a little to VND2.5 trillion (US$78.9 million) on a volume of 53.2 million shares, as Sacombank (STB) resumed its place as the most-active share on the southern market, with 2.5 million traded.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, meanwhile, the HNX-Index rebound by an even more substantial 2.04 per cent to a close of 163.82. Value reached VND764.4 billion ($23 million) on a volume of 21.8 million shares, while Kim Long Securities Company (KLS) continued as the most-active share, with 2.2 million changing hands.
Buy orders were significant yesterday and concentrated in financial blue chips, such as STB, Eximbank and VietinBank (CTG), contributing to the market recovery, said Nguyen The Anh, a broker with a Ha Noi-based securities company. He noted that financial shares had fallen to attractive prices after a recent shift in investor capital towards penny stocks.
Unofficial data from the State Bank of Viet Nam suggesting that credit growth in Viet Nam dong remained low in the first quarter also helped nourish investor interest in the financial sector and in the market overall, Anh said.
"In addition, rumours that the central bank will lessen the required capital reserves ratio [for banks] excited investors with the expectation that more money would flow into securities," said Anh.
Market moves in April would be dominated by first-quarter corporate results to be released this month, said analysts from SME Securities Comany.
The results would be the first test of the Government's tighter monetary policies, they said.
They forecast that investors attitudes would remain stable this month, with improved liquidity and creating favourable conditions for investors to accumulate stocks.
The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios of domestic stock markets were now very attractive compared to others in the region, they added, with Viet Nam's P/E ratio this year discounted 20 per cent compared to the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, a difference that would attract foreign investors with a promise of medium- and long-term profitability.