Shares rose on Nov. 16 on both stock exchanges as investors hunted for bargain shares after a prolonged downturn.

With investors betting that share prices had reached rock bottom and were poised to turn around, an analyst on the website of the FPT Securities Company cautioned, "This belief needs to be tested in the coming days as the cash flow seems quite weak."

Shares often climbed towards the end of each quarter as institutional investors restructured portfolios and attempted to drive up shares and make their financial reports more impressive to their investors, the analyst said.

The HCM Stock Exchange on Nov. 16 snapped a string of seven consecutive losing sessions, as the VN-Index closed at 390.89 points, an increase of 0.78 percent over Nov. 15's level.

The value of trades decreased by 19 percent, however, totalling just 711 billion VND (33.9 million USD) on a volume of about 33 million shares.

Advancers outnumbered decliners by about two-to-one, with eight of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation posting gains. Real estate developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) shot up to its ceiling price of 23,100 VND per share after 12 successive sessions of declines.

Sacombank (STB) was the most-active share, with 1.63 million traded, before closing up 2.9 percent to 14,300 VND per share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose for a second day, gaining over 1.7 percent to close at 64.14 points. Market value rose 16 percent to 323.6 billion VND (15.4 million USD) as nearly 33.2 million shares changed hands.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 179-66, with major stocks increasing. VNDirect Securities (VND), the most-active code nationwide on Nov. 16 with a volume of nearly 4.4 million shares, soared 4.2 percent, while Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) was up 3.1 percent and construction giant Vinaconex (VCG) rose 1.9 percent.

While foreign investors were net sellers of nearly 66 billion VND (3.1 million USD) worth of shares on the HCM City market on Nov. 16, they finished the day as net buyers of nearly 9.3 billion VND (441,800 USD) worth of shares on the Hanoi market.

Despite on Nov. 16's gains, most analysts expressed caution about the market's recovery prospects, suggesting that on Nov. 16 could represent a techinical correction after a long losing streak. Bottom-feeding continued to remain a higly risky investment strategy, they said./.