Shares continued to advance on August 17 on the HCM City bourse, with
the benchmark VN-Index rising to a two-month high of 433.45 points, up
0.61 percent over the previous session.
Blue chips
extended gains, lifting the VN30 Index to 515.55 points. Nineteen of the
top 30 shares climbed by market capitalisation and liquidity, six
declined and five closed flat.
Trading improved with 38
million shares, worth 715 billion VND (34 million USD), changed hands,
up 40 percent in volume and 50 percent in value.
Shares of
PV Gas (GAS) were bought strongly in the morning session, following the
news that the company was added to the MSCI Frontier Index, which
represents 98 percent of the market capitalisation of 31 "frontier"
markets. Vietnam is one of the four Asian countries with stocks
included in the Index.
A total of 2.42 million GAS shares
were traded on Aug 16, making it the most active share on the southern
bourse. It edged up 3.7 percent to close at 41,600 VND (1.98 USD).
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index climbed more steadily in the
afternoon, adding 0.59 percent to a close of 70.35 points, its first
rise in three days. The HNX30 also increased 0.96 percent to stand at
134.68 points.
However, both market volume and value were
down about 12 percent, totalling just 30 million shares, worth 281
billion VND (13.4 million USD).-VNA