HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese stock indices are expected to remain upbeat during upcoming trading sessions thanks to strong investor confidence and a shift in investment among local stocks.

On Friday, the benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.94 per cent to finish at 733.82 points and set a fresh nine-year high.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange advanced 0.78 per cent to close at 92.18 points.

Compared to the previous week’s closing levels, the VN Index notched up a weekly gain of 1.2 per cent and the HNX Index rose 2 per cent.

Daily average trading volume fell 36 per cent week on week, with more than 173.5 million shares traded in each session, while trading value halved to VNĐ2.87 trillion (US$127.5 million).

Local stock indices are expected to continue rising this week on the return of investment flow to large-cap stocks after it had focused on speculative ones, boosting those shares over previous weeks.

Last week, there was a big shift in investment from speculative stocks to large-cap stocks as investors took profits from strong gains in those speculative shares.

“It’s normal for investors to take profits from the speculative stocks, especially those that have made significant gains in the last one or two months,” said Ngô Thế Hiển, analyst at Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

“A strong investment flow has boosted low-priced and speculative stocks, some of which have surged between 50 per cent and 100 per cent,” Hiển said.

Money is flowing out from speculative stocks and returning to large-cap stocks, which will help boost shares of large-cap companies and have a combined effect on other shares in the market, according to Hiển.

In its latest weekly report, SHS forecasts that the increased investment in large-cap shares will help the VN Index rise further, towards the 740 point level.

The shift in investment helped shares of brokerages, banks and energy producers become the biggest gainers last week.

Among the nine listed banks, Vietcombank (VCB) rallied total 1.9 per cent after the last three sessions, Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) made a two-day gain of 3 per cent, while MBBank (MBB) made a three-day jump of 7.6 per cent.

The brokerage sector was driven up by investor expectations for positive earnings among local securities firms, which benefited from high trading liquidity in the market.

Most notable brokerage shares included Sai Gon Securities (SSI), HCM City Securities (HCM), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS) and VNDirect Securities (VND).

SSI surged 9.7 per cent and HCM soared nearly 13 per cent in the last three days, SHS increased by 8.7 per cent and VND rose by 3.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, energy stocks such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) benefited from higher oil prices.

The growth of those companies’ shares had been supported by their positive earnings in the first quarter of 2017, Trần Đức Anh, analyst at Bảo Việt Securities (BVS) said.

That would strengthen the prospect of the stock market at the moment, Anh said, adding that a market correction remained highly possible, but the drop would not be too much. – VNS