Shares continued to move into positive territory on the HCM StockExchange on October 27, although trades remained sluggish in both Hanoiand HCM City .
In HCM City , the VN-Indexclosed higher by 0.64 percent, concluding the session at 414.75 points.Advancers outnumbered decliners by 116-95, but the value of tradestumbled 38.6 percent from Oct. 26's total to just 347.75 billion VND(16.6 million USD). The volume of trades reached only 21.8 millionshares.
Among the 10 leading shares by capitalisation,insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) soared to its ceiling price, whileVietinbank (CTG) gained 4.6 percent and real estate developer Hoang AnhGia Lai (HAG) advanced by 1.8 percent. Others lost value or closedunchanged.
Real estate developer Hoang Quan (HQC) was themost-active share on the HCM City board, with more than 1.9million traded.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Indexdropped by nearly 0.3 percent to close at 67.78. Only 21.3 millionshares were exchanged, for a value of merely 202.3 billion VND (9.6million USD) – 7 percent below Oct. 26's level.
Kim LongSecurities Co (KLS) and VNDirect Securities Co (VND) were themost-active shares on the northern bourse, each with around 1.5 millionshares exchanged.
Foreign investors were net buyers onboth bourses, although their combined net buys totalled only 4.57billion VND (217,600 USD).
Despite recent declines, the domestic market has proven to be attractive to foreign investors.
"The Vietnamese stock market is currently the cheapest in the Asianregion to invest in," said VinaCapital Investment Management's chiefeconomist Alan T Pham.
However, investors were still waiting for more economic indicators to be released before making a decision, Pham said.
The National Assembly's Economic Committee announced that the year'sinflation rate would exceed the target ceiling of 18 percent, predictinga rate of nearly 19 percent, largely due to increases in electricityrates.
The value of the dong has also continued to declineagainst the US dollar, a factor likely to re-ignite inflation. The donghas dropped by another 40 VND per dollar over the past two days, equalto its devaluation over the entire previous week.
Theinterbank foreign exchange was adjusted on October 27 for the 13th timein October to 20,788 VND per dollar, an accumulative depreciation of0.79 percent since last month. The adjustment has caused investors todoubt whether the currency devaluation could be kept within 1 percentbefore the end of the year, as the central bank has vowed. /.