HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares recovered from a short-lived decline as investor confidence turned positive ahead of the start of the DPRK-USA Summit.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange edged up 0.33 per cent to close Wednesday at 990.27 points.

The southern market index fell 0.74 per cent on Tuesday.

Nearly 259 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ5.15 trillion (US$221 million).

Positive market sentiment was maintained ahead of the summit in Hà Nội this week despite there being few expectations for a successful agreement between the two sides, according to Dominic Scriven, chairman of private investment fund Dragon Capital.

The summit is an extraordinary occasion for Việt Nam, he said, adding that there were many international journalists in the country and the market could perhaps benefit from the attention.

The summit between the US and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was also highlighted by BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) in its daily report as one of the issues that could have a major impact on global stock markets. The report also named the US Fed’s rate hike announcements and US-China trade tensions.

Since the beginning of the year, the VN-Index has gained 13 per cent and settled at a 990-point level. On Wednesday, it outperformed other Asia-Pacific markets, most of which erased early gains after news about the tense situation between India and Pakistan.

Positive investor sentiment boosted 163 stocks on the southern bourse on Wednesday, while 142 other stocks declined and 48 remained unchanged.

Among the gainers were shares of companies in the insurance, real estate, pharmaceutical and healthcare, consumer staple, rubber and construction industries, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the opposite side, banks, securities firms and retailers held the market back from higher growth.

“The market was still in a positive stage as purchasing power was kept consistent towards stocks that had declined and returned to their cheaper prices,” Thành Công Securities JSC (TCSC) said in a note.

However, the divergence among different groups of stocks signalled the VN-Index would struggle marginally at the 990-point level in the next few days and there would be stronger divergence among listed firms, TCSC added.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched down 0.03 per cent to 107.63 points, almost unchanged from Tuesday’s close of 107.66 points.

The northern market index had increased by a total of 1.46 per cent in the previous three trading days since last Friday.

Nearly 55 million shares worth VNĐ800 billion were traded on the northern exchange on Wednesday. — VNS