Engineers operate equipment at Nhơn Trạch 2 Power Corporation, a member unit of PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power). — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares recovered on Wednesday from a setback in the morning thanks to increasing demand but fears over the mounting global COVID-19 death toll still plagued investors.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.18 per cent to end the trading session at 748.02 points.

The VN-Index gained 1.35 per cent to end Tuesday at 746.69 points.

More than 252 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ3.8 trillion (US$161.9 million).

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index declined 0.35 per cent to close Wednesday at 691.17 points.

In the VN30 basket, 12 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity gained ground while 16 declined. Two were unchanged.

While the number of emergency hospital admissions slowed in New York, single-day deaths across the US hit a record of more than 1,900.

The S&P 500 ended Tuesday down 0.16 per cent. The Nasdaq dropped 0.33 per cent and the Dow lost 0.12 per cent.

Meanwhile, France's coronavirus death toll exceeded 10,000, making it the fourth country to surpass that threshold after Italy, Spain and the US.

In Asia, Shanghai blue chips lost 0.6 per cent. Mainland China’s cases also doubled in 24 hours due to infected overseas travellers.

On the Vietnamese market, the rebound of shares in the closing minutes implied a bottom fishing cash flow that helped support the overall market.

However, the evaporation of recent rallies showed many investors still fear that the market is in danger of a renewed tumble due to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The VN-Index is forecast to experience fluctuations when approaching the area of 750-755 points during the next session,” said Bảo Việt Securities Company.

On Wednesday, the pillar stocks witnessed strong differentiation with gainers were real estate developer Vinhomes (VHM) (up 6.1 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (rising 2.6 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (up 2.4 per cent) and PVPower (POW) (up 6.9 per cent).

Losers included Vingroup (VIC) (down 3.4 per cent), VPBank  (VPB) (falling 2.8 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (down 1.5 per cent) and steelmaker Hoà Phát Group (HPG) (down 1.6 per cent).

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange increased 0.49 per cent to close Wednesday at 103.93 points.

More than 46.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ488.9 billion. — VNS