Heavy buys lit up the boards on Mar. 5, as the nation's stock exchangesenjoyed their first day of extended trading. Benchmark indices weresubstantially higher when the closing bell rang at 2:15pm.
TheVN-Index closed at 457.21 points, nearly 1 point down from the level atthe lunch break, but a substantial 4-per-cent increase over Mar. 2'sclose. The VN30 Index also rose by 4.25 percent to end the session at524.94 points.
The value of trades on the HCM Stock Exchangejumped 61.3 percent to nearly 2 trillion VND (95.2 million USD) on avolume of 103.3 million shares. Of the 294 listed codes, only 14retreated and five remained unchanged.
With 8.1 million shares changing hands, Eximbank (EIB) was the most-active share nationwide.
Onthe Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index soared by 5.7 percent to 75.78points, with over 350 listed shares posting gains despite an easing intrading volume from the previous session to just 40 million shares. Thevalue of trades reached only 479.3 billion VND (22.8 million USD ), adrop of 32 percent from the previous session.
PetroVietnamTechnical Services Co (PVS) led the Hanoi bourse in terms of volume withover 2.8 million shares traded, followed by Asia Commercial Bank with avolume of around 2.2 million.-VNA