HÀ NỘI — Shares rebounded on the HCM Stock Exchange on Wednesday as large-cap stocks returned to positive territory. The overall market trading conditions remained negative, however, and signaled more volatility in the near future.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.65 per cent to close at 842.71 points. It fell 0.94 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 172.2 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth VNĐ3.85 trillion (US$171.4 million).

The trading figures posted a decrease of 10.3 per cent in volume and 4.6 per cent in value compared to Tuesday.

Despite the gains, the market was still dominated by declining stocks, which outnumbered gainers by 159 to 108, while 48 others ended flat.

Among all stocks, the large-cap group performed well with the VN30 Index that tracks the performance of the 30 biggest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity increasing by 0.45 per cent to 835.38 points.

The VN30 basket was led by FLC Faros Construction (ROS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

PVD and GAS gained 5 per cent and 2.1 per cent, bolstered by crude prices that rose 1.25 per cent to trade at $55.06 a barrel, for total growth of 7.3 per cent since October 19.

Meanwhile, VNM advanced 2.6 per cent after the State Capital Investment Corporation announced it would sell 3.33 per cent of the State’s capital in the largest dairy company at the starting price of VNĐ150,000 ($6.61) per share. The auction will take place on November 10.

Bank stocks on the HCM Stock Exchange also performed well with Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) and Sacombank (STB) among the strongest gainers.

Though the VN Index posted good growth on Wednesday, analysts at Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS) remained pessimistic about the market’s future movement.

Investors were not active enough as they were trying to take over large-cap stocks while continuing to withdraw from small- and mid-cap stocks, leading to strong divergence on the market, SHS said in its daily report.

That increased the potential risk for the market and investors could hardly find any opportunities given the current market conditions, the Hà Nội-based brokerage company said.

As November will likely remain the most difficult time for the stock market, as it has been in each year since 2009, the VN Index could fall back to the level of 840 points on Thursday, SHS said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index was down 0.17 per cent to end at 104.98 points. The northern market index has dropped total 1.4 per cent in the last three sessions.

Market trading liquidity was almost unchanged from the previous trading day, with more than 46 million shares traded – worth VNĐ494 billion. — VNS