HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares struggled to stay positive yesterday while foreign investors’ confidence remained low prior to the US central bank’s meeting.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged up 0.2 per cent to close at 660.77 points.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange ended almost flat at 83.13 points, slightly up from Tuesday.

The two local market indices have climbed about 0.5 per cent each in the last two sessions.

The stock market was volatile as “large-cap shares were mixed” and “late selling forced the market to grow at a slower pace,” according to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Corp (SHS).

Blue chips that made gains included dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), steel producer Hoa Sen Group (HSG), information technology firm FPT Corp (FPT) and confectionery KIDO Corp (KDC).

VNM added 1.4 per cent, HSG jumped 4.2 per cent and FPT edged up 0.7 per cent.

KDC advanced 2.7 per cent, totaling a two-day jump of nearly 10 per cent after the company earlier this week announced it had completed selling the snack business unit for VNĐ2 trillion (nearly US$89 million).

TTF surged another 6.5 per cent to soar more than one-fifth in the last three trading days after losing about 80 per cent of share value within one month.

DRH bounced back strongly by 6.6 per cent from a 2.5-week plummet of nearly 70 per cent, perhaps on investors’ expectations that the company would restructure its management board at the shareholders’ meeting today.

The banking sector yesterday was driven up by Vietcombank (VCB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB) and Vietinbank (CTG). Those stocks were up between 1.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent.

The energy sector extended losses as oil companies suffered from sliding crude prices.

London-traded Brent crude lost 1.4 per cent to trade at $49.28 a barrel, down from Tuesday’s rebound.

Among energy stocks, PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Service Corp (PVD) dropped 1.1 per cent and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) fell 0.9 per cent.

Steel producer Hòa Phát Group (HPG) ran into profit-taking after rising 2.3 per cent in the previous two sessions. HPG yesterday was down 0.6 per cent.

Foreign investors yesterday remained net sellers with total net sell value of nearly VNĐ94 billion as they were worried that the US central bank may increase interest rates for the first time since December.

Trading liquidity remained modest with more than 134.7 million shares being exchanged worth VNĐ2.78 trillion, little changed from Tuesday’s trading value. — VNS