Active purchases of specific blue chips continued to assist the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, with the VN-Index closing up 0.39 percent to finish at 460.3 points on April 21.

Volume was low at 21.5 million shares worth 489.6 billion VND (23.3 million USD).

Insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Masan Group (MSN) played the biggest role in the recovery, both hitting their ceiling prices during the day's trade. BVH rose 4.5 percent to 82,000 VND and MSN rose 5 percent to 94,500 VND.

Other blue chips that performed well included Sacombank (STB) up 0.7 percent, property developer Vincom (VIC) up 0.7 percent, and resort developer Vinpearl Land (VPL) up 0.1 percent.

STB on April 21 returned to the leading position in daily trading, on a volume of 931,880 shares.

Foreign investors continued their focus on buying rather than selling shares on the HCM City market, buying 2.3 million shares in total while selling 1.6 million shares. The favourite stocks for foreign traders included property developer Vincom (VIC) with 94,620 shares, BVH with 96,080 shares, Phu My Fertiliser (DPM) with 164,240 and Vietcombank (VCB) with 182,170.

In Hanoi , the HNX-Index dropped 2.08 percent to close at 84.21 points, with 70 percent of stocks losing ground.

Trading value remained low at 229.3 billion VND (10.9 million USD) on a total volume of 23.2 million shares.

Coffee producer Thai Hoa Group (THV) saw the highest trading volume of 1.8 million shares. THV closed up 1.9 percent to 10,600 VND a piece./.