Vietnamese shares rebounded in both local markets on Wednesday, boosted by investors’ bottom-picking on expectations the market will soon return to an upward trend. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares rebounded in both local markets on Wednesday, boosted by investors’ bottom-picking on expectations the market will soon return to an upward trend.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.20 per cent to close at 769.04 points.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange gained 0.34 per cent to end at 98.35 points.

The VN Index and the HNX Index on Tuesday lost 0.7 per cent each.

More than 261.4 million shares were exchanged on both local bourses, worth VNĐ4.35 trillion (US$193.4 million).

Wednesday’s trading figures were lower than Tuesday’s with a decline of 6.1 per cent in volume and 7 per cent in value.

Large-cap stocks performed well with 17 of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation ended higher.

Increasing large-cap stocks included PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), lenders BIDV (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG), and Hoàng Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG).

Those large-cap stocks rose between 0.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent with PVD recording the highest growth.

PVD on Tuesday lost 2.1 per cent, CTG dropped 1.2 per cent, BID lost 1.5 per cent and HAG slumped 3.6 per cent.

Brokerage firms attributed the market’s recovery on Wednesday to strong bargain hunting, with investors snapping up stocks that had declined previously.

Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS) said in a note that the VN Index moved negatively in the first half of trading on Wednesday as investors continued to offload their portfolios.

The market began to recover from the end of morning session and finished in positive territory as investors pecked up stocks from their intra-day bottom, SHS said.

However, Wednesday’s increase did not signal the stock market had returned to an upward trend and it needed to be tested in the next few sessions, the Hà Nội-based brokerage firm added.

The VN Index is likely to continue moving narrowly on Thursday in the range of between 765 and 773 points, and needs to make a strong break from 773 points to fully return to an upward trend, SHS said.

Investor sentiment is still positive on thoughts that the market is in good conditions, therefore, strong selling that could pull the market down again is unlikely, Vietnam Investment Securities (IVS) said. — VNS