Robust growth of speculative stocks, particularly realty, construction and securities, helped push up both stock indices and liquidity on the two exchanges last week.

Meanwhile, trading on blue chips was more sluggish due to rising profit-taking pressures.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index gained a cumulative 1.82 percent during the week, and closed the July 4 session at 589.35 points.

Trading also improved substantially over the previous week, when the daily trading volume increased 42.2 percent, averaging nearly 111 million shares, and was valued at over 1.8 trillion VND (85.3 million USD) per session.

Of note, speculative stocks were the largest gainers, led by construction groups, with an average growth of 5.94 percent. Also, securities stocks rose 4.47 percent, on average, followed by real estate shares, increasing 3.25 percent.

During the week, construction and real estate shares took turns as the most active stocks on the Hochiminh Stock Market, including FLC Group (FLC), Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp (ITA), Hoang Quan Consulting Trading Service Real Estate Corp (HQC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) and Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corp (KBC).

According to analysts from SHB Securities Company, investors remain optimistic about the forecast for second-quarter and first-half corporate earnings reports of listed companies. Particularly, realty stocks that benefited most from the possibility that the lending package, worth 30 trillion VND (1.4 billion USD) for the real estate sector, will expand to take in more customers. This information contributed to the soaring of the liquidity of real estate shares.

By contrast, blue chips were mixed as they fell in the first sessions of the week due to rising profit-taking pressure, but recovered in the final sessions. Rallies of major shares, such as dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PV Gas (GAS), VinGroup (VIC) and Vietcombank (VCB), helped lift the VN-Index.

Overall, the VN30, tracking the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, was up 2.3 percent to end at 631.02 points.

Le Thi Bich Hang, analyst of FPT Securities Co, said the market would likely continue to rise this week, as the main trend on both stock exchanges was still marked by a slight increase and accumulation of value.

"Apart from VNM, BVH, GAS, VIC, VCG and Masan Group (MSN), which have gained significantly during the past period, other large-cap stocks are continuing to accumulate value and will likely increase this week. This group of stocks will help sustain the market uptrend," Hang wrote in a research report.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also added 2.4 percent to close at 79.44 points on July 4. Liquidity remained high, with the daily trading volume up 34.3 percent over the previous week, averaging 72.5 million shares, and valued at 748.2 billion VND (35.5 million USD) per session.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers on the two stock exchanges, though their net buying value declined 35.6 percent from the previous week, with a combined value of 235 billion VND (11.1 million USD).

According to Vietcombank Securities Co, the majority of foreign purchases came from the two exchange-traded funds, Market Vectors Vietnam (VNM) and FTSE Vietnam. These two funds finished their portfolios' restructuring last week, but are continuing to buy local shares with modest values.-VNA