The benchmark indices made strong gains on January 16 on both the national stock exchanges.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index, boosted by PV Gas (GAS) and the Masan group (MSN), advanced 1.3 percent to reach 533.54 points.

More than 97.75 million shares changed hands for a total value of 1.75 trillion VND (83.33 million USD).

Tracking the southern city's 30 largest shares, the VN30-Index rose 1.1 percent to 589.46 points, thanks to gains from 16 codes.

From the codes, the Masan group (MSN) edged up 3,000 VND to reach 89,500 VND per share, with 540,000 shares changing hands.

After reporting upbeat business results for 2013, PV Gas (GAS) received strong buying support from foreign investors, soaring 4.7 percent to 77,000 VND per share.

Other gainers included the Hoa Phat Group (HPG), the Hoa Sen Group (HSG), the FPT Group (FPT) and Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG).

Overall, on the southern bourse, 113 codes made gains while 97 codes lost.

The VN-Index has been on a winning streak recently, with the benchmark index gaining for 10 straight days, which represents the longest period of gains for the index in the past one year.

The benchmark index did not see any losers during the previous trading and closed the day at its highest level.

On the northern bourse, the HNX-Index closed 0.52 percent higher at 73.07 points, while the HNXFF-Index, composed of stocks with a minimum free float rate of 5 percent, ended 0.34 percent higher at 72.64 points.

These benchmark indices have gained for four straight trading sessions.

With the trading of 65.8 million shares, the total value climbed to 721.9 billion VND.

The HNX30-Index, consisting of the capital city's 30 top shares, gained 0.6 percent to end at 141.86 points.-VNA