Advancers outnumbereddecliners by nearly two-to-one, but the value of trades remainedalarmingly low, with trades totalling only about 299 billion VND (14.4million USD) on a bleak volume of 17.9 million shares.
Sacombank (STB), with just over 970,000 shares traded, became themost-active share, closing up 2.3 percent to 13,100 VND (0.62 USD).
Most of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation posted gains, with onlyfood producer Masan Group (MSN) and Eximbank (EIB) losing value.
" Vietnam 's stock market was unlikely to steeply decline now thatglobal markets were gradually recovering from two weeks of strongdeclines," analysts with the financial website vietstock.vn wrote in anote. "The resistant landmarks of 370-385 points for the VN-Index and65-67 points for the HNX-Index have proven strong, and many stocks atrecord low prices may spark the greed of a number of investors."
The market was regrouping after a long downturn, agreed FPT SecuritiesCo analysts, who noted that there was little basis for a big changewithout new information to boost investor psychology.
Investors are awaiting more information related to interest rates andinflation in August in order to have a clearer view of the market, theysaid. Meanwhile, low market volumes were making many investors morecautious.
In Ha Noi, the HNX-Index closed nearly unchangedat 65.83 points. Market value reached 160.4 billion VND (7.7 millionUSD) on a volume of 16 million shares.
Gainers outnumbered losers by 136-84.
Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) reclaimed the position as the most-active share in Ha Noi with nearly 2.5 million changing hands.
Foreigners were net buyers on the HCM City bourse on Aug. 16,picking up nearly 12 billion VND (560,000 USD) worth of shares, but werenet sellers of about 54 million VND (2,600 USD) in Hanoi. /.
