Rallies of three major stocks, Vinamilk (VNM), PV Gas (GAS) and VinGroup (VIC), helped the benchmark VN-Index surpass a strong resistance landmark of 600 points on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange on July 21.

The VN-Index closed up 0.8 percent at 601.04 points despite losers outnumbering gainers by 133-86. Other 64 stocks were flat. Blue chips were mixed.

VNM rose 4.5 percent; PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corp (PVD) increased 2.8 percent; GAS was up 1 percent; and VIC up 0.71 percent.

However, others such as Masan Group (MSN), Military bank (MBB) and Da Nang Rubber Co (DRC) declined from 0.7 to 4.4 percent.

Shares of software giant FPT Corp (FPT) dropped 2.9 percent to close at 51,000 VND (2.42 USD) per share on July 21, after it denied rumours of a take-over by Apple.

FPT shares hit the ceiling price on July 16, following reports that Apple intended to buy FPT to counter rival Samsung in Asia.

The VN30 tracking the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity inched down 0.03 percent to end at 645.33 points.

Trading was more sluggish as both market volume and value fell 20 percent from July 18 levels, totalling more than 111.5 million shares and fund certificates, worth 1.989 trillion VND (94.3 million USD).

Real estate FLC Group (FLC) was the most active stock yesterday with 13.3 million shares, closing flat at 12,500 VND per share.

The southern stock exchange on July 21 added one more stock with a debut of 77 million shares - the Southern Hydropower Company under the code of SHP.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.36 percent to end the day at 80.85 points as decliners outnumbered advancers by 118-49. Nearly half of total stocks were unchanged.

Profit taking pushed liquidity up. Market volume rose 30 percent over the previous session to more than 58 million shares, while value of trades was up 25 percent to nearly 697 billion VND (33 million USD).

PetroVietnam Construction Corp (PVX) was the most active stock on total trades of 6.5 million shares, diving 2.2 percent to 4,500 VND each.

Foreign investors concluded on July 21 as net buyers on both markets, picking up combined shares worth total 40.17 billion VND (1.9 million USD).-VNA