Stocks posted modest gains throughout last week, driven by blue chips, but retreated towards the end of the week when reaching the strong resistance level of 610 points.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the benchmark VN-Index climbed 1.94 percent during the week, closing at 605.43 points on August 8.

Growth of large-cap shares, such as VinGroup (VIC), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and PV Gas (GAS) sustained the market development.

Further, thanks to an advance by the largest market capitalisation share GAS, which hit the highest value in its trading history of 117,000 VND per share on August 5, the VN-Index surpassed the difficult psychological landmark of 600 point.

Also, the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, increased a cumulative 1.09 percent to end the week at 641.93 points.

Liquidity improved over the previous week, with the daily trading volume rising some 20 percent to nearly 90.5 million shares, worth 1.673 trillion VND (79.3 million USD) per session.

However, according to analysts of FPT Securities Company, the market will hardly see a strong increase due to a lack of support information in the August period. Speculative money will likely pour into small-cap stocks, which have sound indicators and positive information.

"Therefore, investors should hold cash at a rational level and await the market to fall below 600 points before starting new investments," Nguyen Van Quy, an analyst of FPTS, wrote in a report.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained a cumulative 2.45 percent to end the week at 80.94 points.

Active trading of hot stocks, such as PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Company (KLF), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and F.I.T Investment Company (FIT), supported the market.

The market volume grew over 28 percent compared with the previous week, averaging 46.5 million shares worth 559.35 billion VND (26.5 million USD) per day.

However, while domestic investors increased buying, foreigners turned heads to sell local shares last week, a move that analysts warned could reverse the market trend.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were responsible for a total net sales value of 577.2 billion VND (27.4 million USD) on the two markets, of which they unloaded up to 574 billion VND (27.2 million USD) worth of shares on the HCM City's bourse. Their selling focused on Masan Group (MSN), which totaled 229 billion VND (10.9 million USD), and confectionery Kinh Do Corporation (KDC), with a value of 183 billion VND (8.7 million USD).

According to the technical analysis of VNDirect Securities Company, the market will likely continue its uptrend this week thanks to its stable liquidity.-VNA