Attempts by a few investors to grab stocks on the cheap before the Tet (lunar New Year) holiday helped the VN-Index advance on Feb. 11 to within a whisker of 500 points on improved but still modest trading volume.

The Index rose by a respectable 1.84 percent to a close of 499.94, as the value of the day’s trades on the HCM Stock Exchange jumped by 21.5 percent over feb. 10’s total to 989.28 billion VND (53.5 million USD), with a volume of 21.15 million shares.

Foreign investors helped boost the gains on the HCM City market by picking up a net of 1.8 million shares, worth a net of 142.4 billion VND (7.7 million USD). Dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) continued to attract interest from this sector, as they bought up over 1.2 million VNM shares.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Feb. 11, the HNX-Index also rose for a second day to 163.25 points, a gain of 1.4 percent, but trading remained sluggish on a volume of just 10.5 million shares, worth a combined 329.76 billion VND (17.8 million USD)./.