Shares rose stronger during the afternoon session on March 25 on the two national stock exchanges as investors celebrated the news of lower interest rates from the central bank.

Earlier on the day, the State Bank of Vietnam announced a cut in the ceiling deposit rate from 8 percent to 7.5 per annum, refinancing rates from 9 percent to 8 percent and the discount rate from 7 percent to 6 percent.

Blue chips led the market uptrend with the leading role of property developer Vingroup (VIC), up 2.3 percent, and dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), up 1.8 percent.

Twenty four of the 30 largest shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange posted gains, lifting the benchmark VN-Index by 0.73 percent to a close of 493.57 points, while the VN30 was up higher by 1.26 percent at 561.81 points.

Liquidity on the market was still modest, however, with just 38.3 million shares, worth almost 909 billion VND (43.3 million USD), changing hands, down 30 percent in volume and 10 percent in value from the previous session.

Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) reclaimed the position of the most active code on the bourse with 1.6 million shares traded, but the shares closed down 1.4 percent to 7,200 VND a share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also rose 0.31 percent to finish the day’s session at 61.12 point.

Trading value was low at over 250 billion VND (11.9 million USD).

Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) was still the most heartily traded stock on the northern bourse with nearly 6 million shares changing hands, closing up 3 percent at 6,900 VND a share.

Foreign investor also increased their buys on the HCM City market, picking up a net buy worth 58.7 billion VND (2.8 million USD), but they were net sellers on the Hanoi bourse, responsible for a modest net sell of 278 million VND (13,200 USD) worth of shares.-VNA