HÀ NỘI – Shares are moving into positive territory, driven by strong investment inflows on an optimistic market outlook expected this week.

According to analysts at Viet Dragon Securities Co, both stock indices closing higher with liquidity rising robustly in the two markets last week endorsed the expected upturn in the short term.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange moved sideways around 700 points in the last five sessions and ended the week at 703.8, 0.5 per cent higher than the end of the previous week.

Liquidity improved with the daily market value reaching VNĐ3 trillion (US$132.7 million) last week, up 50 per cent over the previous week’s value. Trading volume increased 32.2 per cent, averaging 145.5 million shares.

On the smaller exchange in Hà Nội, the HNX-Index increased 1.2 per cent for the week, closing Friday at 86.04 points. Trading volume was more modest with just 40 million shares worth VNĐ373 billion exchanged each session, up 81.3 per cent week-on-week.

While large-cap stocks saw divergence, a big proportion of investments ran into mid-cap and small-cap stocks in the weekend sessions.

Encouraging 2016 earnings reports were gaining momentum for strong gains of rubber, steel and real estate companies, such as Đồng Phú Rubber (DPR), Phước Hòa Rubber (PHR), Pomina Steel (POM), Nam Kim Steel (NKG), Consultancy Design & Urban Development (CDO), Urban Development & Construction (UDC), Sài Gòn Telecommunication & Technologies (SGT) and Hòa Bình Construction & Real Etate Corp (HBC).

Among these, POM, SGT, UDC and CDO were the biggest gainers, each seeing share prices climbing 38-40 per cent last week.

“The annual general meetings and business plans of listed companies in 2017 could motivate the VN-Index,” Trần Hải Yến, a stock analyst at Bảo Việt Securities Co wrote in a market report.

Foreign investors concluded last week as net buyers for a modest net value of just VNĐ45 billion. Shares of dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) topped their net buys with total value of VNĐ156.3 billion. Their net buys on this share extended to 23 consecutive sessions, with a total value of VNĐ936 billion.

Global stock markets remained positive, especially the Dow Jones surpassing and remaining above 20,000 points after the US Federal Reserve did not hike rates in its last policy meeting.

However, the growth of the developed market, typically the US market, could cause difficulty in maintaining investment capital, running into frontier and emerging markets, including Việt Nam, according to the Bảo Việt Securities Co.

“Basically, we believe that foreign indirect investment flows in Việt Nam’s stock market in 2017 will be significant compared to previous years,” Yến said. – VNS