Stocks sustained gains on the HCM Stock Exchange on March 14, but sank on the Hanoi bourse.

In HCM City , the VN-Index closed up by over a percent to 433.86 points, even as decliners outnumbered advancers by 156-96.

Eleven of the 30 leading shares posted gains, with insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Sacombank (STB) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) each hitting their ceiling prices, helping lift the VN30 Index to a close of 491.23 points, a gain of about 1 percent on the day.

Investors remained wary of a possible “bulltrap”, keeping market volume unchanged at just 64 million shares, worth about 986.5 billion VND (34.7 million USD).

Ninh Van Bay Travel Real Estate (NVT) concluded the session as the most-active share on the southern bourse on a volume of 4.66 million shares. NVT slid by 2.86 percent to close at 3,500 VND per share, while STB hit its ceiling price of 22,300 VND.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 1.79 percent to end March 14’s session at 69.28 points. The value of trades dropped 10 percent to 598.6 billion VND (28.5 million USD), while volume plunged by 16 percent to 67.4 million shares. Losers edged out gainers by a margin of 135-122.

Habubank (HBB) continued to be the most-active share nationwide with nearly 19 million shares traded. The State Bank of Vietnam on Mar. 13 rejected a rumour that it had approved a takeover of HBB by Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB).

Foreign investors returned to being net buyers on the HCM City market on Mar. 14, picking up shares worth a net of over 172.6 billion VND (8.2 million USD). By contrast, they were net sellers in Hanoi market by a narrow margin of 7.3 billion VND (347,600 USD).-VNA