Themarket witnessed slight decline in early trading on May 20. However, onthe Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index started to rebound later andthe upward trend continued in the afternoon, with an additional 4.48points or as much as 0.84 percent to finish at 537.52 points.
The benchmark index was fuelled by stocks of the property and securities sectors with many closing at their ceiling prices.
Theseincluded property FLC Group (FLC), Hoang Quan Corporation (HQC) and DucLong Gia Lai (DLG), which ended at their ceiling prices for three daysin a row.
Property stocks continued to lead the southern bourseby trading volumes on May 20. More than 13.3 million shares of FLC weretraded, ranking first, followed by HQC, Tan Tao Group (ITA), Viet-HanCorporatioin (VHG) and Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG).
Securities stocks including BIDV Securities (BSI) and Sacombank Securities (SBS) also closed on May 20 at their ceiling prices.
Althoughgainers overwhelmed losers by 17 – 6, the VN30-Index, tracking theperformance of the southern bourse's 30 top stocks by capitalisation andliquidity, posted modest gain of 0.16 percent, or 0.96 points, to landat 590.27 points.
Becamex IJC, a market pillar among property stock, rose by 6.4 percent to its ceiling price of 11,700 VND (0.55 USD) a share.
Vinamilk(VNM), Kinh Do Corporation (KDC) and Southern Rubber Corporation (DRC)added 1,000 VND (0.049 USD) a share each while other gainers rose bybetween 100 VND and 4,00 VND a share.
PetroVietnam Drilling Corporation (PVD), Vingroup (VCI) and Masan Group (MSN) were among the losers on May 20.
With 105 million shares changing hands, the trading value reached 1.3 trillion VND (61.9 million USD).
Onthe Hanoi Exchange, the HNX-Index ended 1.5 percent higher at 73.73points while the HNXFF-Index, composed of stocks with minimum free floatrate of 5 percent, ended 1.72 percent at 74.38 points.
The gainwas supported by large-cap stocks with the HNX30-Index, tracking topstocks, seen rising by 2.48 percent to end at 145.62 points.
Thetrading volume and value increased by 27 percent and 17 percent,respectively, over the previous trading to 74.4 million shares and 596.9billion VND (28.4 million USD).
Foreign investors continued toinject money into the Vietnam stock market, concluding as buyers of anet worth of more than 66 billion VND (3.14 million USD) on May 20.-VNA