Investors follow transactions at Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) in Hanoi. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese shares rose for a second day, boosted by positive company news for individual stocks.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 0.8 percent to close at 572.55 points and the HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange gained slightly by 0.3 percent to end at 79.16 points.
The southern index has gained 1.8 percent and the northern index has risen 0.5 percent in the past two days.
Among stocks that improved on positive news, furniture maker Duc Long Gia Lai Group Joint Stock Company (DLG) was the most actively traded stock for a second day and surged 6.1 percent after the company denied a rumour saying its leaders were being investigated by Government agencies.
This negative rumour has made the stock decline by 27.5 percent since the beginning of this month.
Meanwhile, Cotec Construction Joint Stock Company (CTD) jumped 3.3 percent after the company issued more than 3.6 million shares for shareholders of construction firm Unicons to complete its acquisition of this company.
In addition, Vinacafe Bien Hoa Joint Stock Company (VCF) gained 1.4 percent on investor expectations State-owned Vinacafe Corp sold its entire stake, or 12.6 percent of VCF's outstanding float, on December 16. Vinacafe Corp had said in October that it planned to sell its VCF stake. Vinacafe is believed to have earned more than 522 billion VND (2.3 million USD) from this deal.
Neither company has confirmed the sale.
The stock market was also lifted by energy stocks, whose index inched up 0.3 percent following a rise in the US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI).
WTI crude gained 2.9 percent to trade at 37.35 USD a barrel, however, crude backed down 0.8 percent on December 16 to trade at 37.07 USD in Asian trading.
Among advancing energy stocks, PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) was up 0.8 percent and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) rose 0.6 percent.
Other big stocks that also boosted the market included Vinamilk (VNM), which gained 1.6 percent, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), which jumped 3 percent, and Vietinbank (CTG), which rose 1.7 percent.
Both local trading floors exchanged nearly 166 million shares worth 3 trillion VND (137.6 million USD), an increase of 16.6 percent from the trading value on December 15.-VNA
