"There wasn't any news today, so we were surprised by such a happy session," said Nguyen Thanh Binh, head of research for a Hanoi-based securities company, suggesting that investors had reacted to exceedingly low share prices with an explosion in demand.
A group of penny stocks and mid-cap shares performed particularly strongly during the session, Binh said, noting that stocks that recovered most strongly on March 10 were those which had hit bottom in the five prior sessions.
Half of the 233 gainers on March 10 saw prices hit the ceiling, including insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), up 4.8 percent; Tu Liem Urban Development Co (NTL), up 4.5 percent; resort developer Vinpearl Land (VPL), up 4.4 percent; and PetroVietnam Drilling (PVD), up 3.8 percent.
Shares in securities companies Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and HCM City Securities (HCM) also recovered strongly, while banking shares gained by an average of 1.3 percent over the previous day's session.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange on March 10, the HNX-Index rose by an even more substantial 4.36 percent to close at 92.31 points. However, volume remained low at 32.1 million shares, worth a total of 464.4 billion VND (21.6 million USD).
Out of 266 gainers on the northern market, 90 hit their ceiling prices, including Bao Viet Securities (BVS), up 5.6 percent; Kim Long Securities (KLS), up 5.4 percent; APEC Securities (APS), up 5.3 percent; and VNDirect Securities (VND), up 5.2 percent.
Foreign investors contributed subsantially to on March 10's rally. They bought up over 124 billion VND (57 million USD) in shares, focusing buys on blue chips such as VietinBank (CTG), PVD, Phu My Fertilisers (DPM) and BVH./.
