Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese shares advanced on August 22 despite investors’ profit-taking as overall market sentiment remained positive about the possibility of resolving China-US trade tensions.
The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.30 percent to close at 982.15 points. It has rallied a total of 2.16 percent in the last five sessions.
The HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange finished August 22 at 109.99 points, little changed from its previous ending of 110.02 points.
More than 242.5 million shares were transferred on the two trading bourses, worth nearly 5.1 trillion VND (226.6 million USD). These figures increased slightly compared to August 21's numbers.
Large-cap stocks performed well to boost the stock market with the blue chip VN30 Index gaining 0.46 percent to 959.63 points.
Fourteen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket made gains, including logistics firm Gemadept (GMD), FLC Faros Construction (ROS), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and Sacombank (STB).
On the sector basis, the insurance industry performed best as its index jumped 3.5 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.
On the opposite side, banks, securities firms and plastic producers were among the worst declining industries, losing between 0.9 percent and 1 percent.
According to BIDV Securities JSC (BSC), the market was mainly supported by positive investor sentiment as they showed confidence in that US-China trade tensions would be resolved.
Global markets also traded in the positive territory on expectations that trade talks between China and the US this week would ease trade tensions.
Investors also seemed calm despite the US central bank Fed was likely to raise interest rates in September, BIDV said.
Another factor that cushioned market sentiment was leading rating agency Moody’s forecast that Vietnam's economy would maintain its strong growth over the next four years at the annual rate of 6.4 percent, Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) said in a report.
Foreign investors remained net buyers, posting 30 billion VND worth of net buy value on August 22. They net-sold 144.3 billion VND on August 21.
According to BVSC, the VN Index has surpassed the 980-point level with strong volatility, proving that it would consolidate before rising to the old peak of 1,000 points.
The VN Index stayed above the 980-982 zone during the session but weakened in the last minutes, indicating that potential selling pressure in this zone may force the index to retreat in the coming sessions, BVSC said.-VNS/VNA