HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares advanced on Wednesday as an increase of oil prices helped boost petroleum stocks but worries about trading liquidity overshadowed market progress.

 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.63 per cent to close at 975.91 points.

 

The VN-Index fell total 1.92 per cent in the first two trading days of the week. It has lost total 3.55 per cent in the last fortnight since breaking through the six-month high of 1,011.86 points on March 18.

 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange added 0.67 per cent to end at 107.56 points, totalling a two-day growth rate of 1.08 per cent.

 

More than 186.8 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ3.94 trillion (US$169.2 million).

 

The petroleum and energy sector played the main role to pick the market up on higher crude prices.

 

According to Bloomberg, Brent crude leapt 1.3 per cent on Tuesday overnight trade and gained as much as 0.26 per cent during Wednesday.

 

The petroleum sector index gained 0.7 per cent, being among the best-performing sectors in Việt Nam, data on vietstock.vn showed.

 

Vietnamese petroleum stocks grew strongly, including PetroVietnam Mud Drilling (PVC), PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW), and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS).

 

Beside petroleum industry, financial stocks also performed well with the banking, insurance and brokerage industry indices rising between 0.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent.

 

On the two local exchanges, gaining stocks outnumbered decliners by 305 to 147 and 121 stocks ended flat.

 

Part of the improvement on the Vietnamese stock market came after global stocks benefited from the recovery of the US stocks on Tuesday night, according to MB Securities (MBS).

 

“The market sentiment is also positive as investors are turning their attention to the US-China trade talks, which resume this week,” while the US Federal Reserve may cut lending rates in September or December to boost the US and global economy, MBS said in its daily report.

 

“Those pieces of information may boost the domestic market morale to gain further on Thursday,” MBS said.

 

However, what is weighing on investors’ confidence is the decline of trading liquidity, which proves gaining sessions are only technical rebounds, MBS added.

 

“Only investors with long-term appetite join the market at the moment while those with short-term appetite would choose to stand by and wait until the market settles down.”

 

According to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS), there is a possibility the market would continue going down in next sessions and the VN-Index may settle between 960-980 points on  Thursday. VNS