Positive economic news released on June 20 morning helped lift shares on both of the nation's stock exchanges, but trading remained sluggish.

The city of Hanoi announced that consumer prices declined in June by 0.17 percent, even as credit grew in the capital city by 2.1 percent during the period. Economic growth in the first half the year also reached 7.6 percent.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained another 0.42 percent to close on June 20's session at 432.89 points, driven by blue chip gains. But the value of trades was only about half the previous day's level, reaching a mere 615.5 billion VND (29.3 million USD) on a volume of 34 million shares.

The VN30 Index, which measures the performance of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, climbed 0.31 percent to stand at 508.23. Amongst the 30 leading shares, Vietcombank (VCB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), software giant (FPT) and property developer VinGroup (VIC) all posted modest gains.

Sacombank (STB) saw over 2.5 million shares change hands, making it the most-active share on the HCM City bourse. STB rose by 1.3 percent to close at 22,800 VND per share.

The VN-Index has fluctuated narrowly around the 430-point level over the past week and the market would need time and fresh capital inflows to absorb the April gains in share prices, analysts commented.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also rose by 0.38 percent to close at 74.36 points, but value shrivelled to just 261.4 billion VND (12.4 million USD). Advancers outnumbered decliners on the northern bourse by 134-69, with 195 codes remaining unchanged.

PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) continued to be the most-active share in Hanoi with nearly 2.7 million traded. It closed up by nearly a percent on June 20 to 10,400 VND per share.

Foreign investors remained net buyers in Hanoi with a margin of over 2 billion VND (100,000 USD) worth of shares but were net sellers in HCM City , unloading shares worth a net of 8 billion VND (380,000 USD).-VNA