HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares remained positive on both local exchanges on Tuesday as banking-financial stocks performed well on strong foreign purchases.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.18 per cent to close at 880.90 points despite strong selling pressure when the benchmark neared the level of 885 points during the session.

The VN Index has achieved total growth of 5.7 per cent after the last eight consecutive sessions.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange gained 0.26 per cent to end at 107.06 points. The northern market index has rallied total 2.1 per cent in the last five trading days.

More than 266.5 million shares were traded on both local bourses, worth VNĐ9.68 trillion (US$430.3 million).

The stock market continued to be dominated by declining stocks, which outnumbered gaining ones by 253 to 204.

The trading figures posted a decrease of 22 per cent in volume and 32 per cent in value compared to Monday’s numbers.

Banking-financial stocks were the main driving factor pushing local markets up on Tuesday, after they received strong purchasing from foreign investors. Foreign investors on Tuesday posted VNĐ198.5 billion worth of net buy value.

Net foreign investment in shares of Vietcombank (VCB) reached VNĐ22.73 billion, VNĐ19 billion in Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), VNĐ18.5 billion in Viet Capital Securities (VCI) and VNĐ10.9 billion in HCM City Securities (HCM).

Among those four financial stocks, VCI hit its daily increase limit of 6.9 per cent and the three others were up between 0.2 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

Large-cap stocks continued to attract huge investor attention as 20 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation advanced. The VN30 Index increased by 0.34 per cent to 871.08 points.

On the negative side, profit-taking strengthened when some stocks reached investors’ expected profitable price ranges.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) fell 2.4 per cent after it had gained nearly 17 per cent in the previous four sessions. Bình Minh Plastic Co (BMP) dropped 1.7 per cent from a six-day increase of total 21 per cent.

According to Bảo Việt Securities (BVSC), the VN Index may begin correcting on Wednesday as the market trading liquidity declined and the market was still flush with declining stocks.

Investors were quite cautious over the fact that the index would suffer from strong selling pressure and dependence on large-cap stocks, BVSC said in its daily report.

“We are concerned that negative impacts will arise and pull the market down when large-cap stocks enter their short-term correction period after having risen strongly in recent weeks.” — VNS