HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares recovered from a two-day decline as steel producers advanced on Government’s support and higher second-quarter performances.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.4 per cent to finish at 673.50 points. The southern market index declined by 1.6 per cent in the previous two sessions.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange edged up 0.5 per cent to close at 87.05 points, rebounding after a two-day fall of 0.9 per cent.

Top steel producers such as Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Tiến Lên Steel Corp (TLH), Việt Nam-Germany Steel Pipe JSC (VGS), SMC Investment Trading JSC (SMC) and Việt Nam-Italy Steel JSC (VIS) took turns to drive markets up.

“Steel companies rose on expectations that the local steel industry will improve after the Ministry of Industry and Trade yesterday issued a decision to impose a four-year safeguard tax on imported steel products,” Bảo Việt Securities Corp (BVSC) wrote in its daily report.

Confidence in steel stocks has been high during the past four months since the ministry in March issued a temporary tariff on imported steel products and global prices increased.

Some of the listed steel producers have reported higher profits for the second quarter of the year and they are heading to better results during the remaining months.

TLH late last week reported a net profit of VNĐ155 billion (US$6.9 million), an increase of 47.6 per cent from the first quarter. SMC earned a net profit of VNĐ170 billion, nearly twice the figure in the first quarter.

On the stock market, TLH, HSG, VIS and VGS surged between 6.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent, SMC added 1.8 per cent and HPG jumped 4.2 per cent.

Energy stocks also helped boost the markets after oil prices were able to rise during the last two sessions of last week.

PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) gained 1.6 per cent, PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) increased  by 1 per cent and PetroVietnam Technical Service Corp (PVS) jumped 3.3 per cent.

Việt Nam Dairy Products JSC (VNM) yesterday was up 2 per cent to hit a new high of VNĐ150,000 per share. The company’s market capitalisation is now equal to VNĐ180 trillion or $8 billion.

Coteccons Construction JSC (CTD) rose 2.3 per cent to hit a new high of VNĐ218,000 per share, becoming the highest-value stock on the market.

Investors yesterday traded 185.4 million shares worth VNĐ3.08 trillion, a decrease of 26 per cent from last week’s daily trading value. — VNS