HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares rebounded strongly from the previous losing streak but it was seen as a technical recovery as investors were still cautious ahead of the year-end holiday.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 1.02 per cent to close at 900.81 points.

The southern market index had fallen total 7.23 per cent in the previous 10 days since December 13.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was up 1.67 per cent to end at 103.99 points.

The northern market had dropped total 2.15 per cent in the previous four trading days since last Friday.

The overall market sentiment got better as investors were excited by the strong growth of the US stock market on Wednesday, leading to a boost in the domestic market, Thành Công Securities JSC (TCSC) said in a daily report.

“But as trading liquidity remained low, it was obviously a technical recovery day that had been expected during the previous 10-day losing streak,” the company said.

More than 202 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ3.83 trillion (US$168 million). The figure included VNĐ297 billion worth of net foreign purchases.

Large-cap companies were the ones that benefited from the improved market sentiment. The blue-chip VN30 Index increased by 0.51 per cent to 865.45 points.

Twenty-three of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the blue-chip basket advanced, including steelmakers Hoa Sen (HSG) and Hoa Phat (HPG), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and VPBank (VPB).

By sector, 16 of the 20 industry indices rose and the best-performing sectors included insurance-banking, retail, petroleum and rubber production.

However, investors were unwilling to buy in more while selling pressure always existed at the high price levels, and those forced the indices to narrow their gains at the end of the day, TCSC said.

“Selling pressure showed signs of increasing when the VN-Index climbed above the 900-point milestone,” Artex Securities JSC said.

“That proves investors were still cautious even when the market recovered,” it said. “As the global markets may continue to remain unpredictable, there would be more volatility on the domestic market.”

“There is one more trading day left in 2018 (Friday) and the market trading promises to be quite surprising for investors,” Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS) said.

“Investors may continue to stand by and watch the trading activities, so trading liquidity would remain low.” – VNS