Shares had a good start on Monday thanks to increased demand toward the end of the trading session.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index rose 1.26 per cent to close the day at 1,241.42 points. The southern bourse’s index increased 1.52 per cent last week.

Some 1.3 billion shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ26.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion).

Market breadth was positive with 342 gainers and 129 losers.

The VN-30 Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, rose 1.56 per cent to close at 1,250.68 points. In the basket, 27 stocks rose and three declined.

In the VN-30 basket, the biggest gainers included Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Vietjet (VJC), Masan Group (MSN), HD Bank (HDB), Mobile World Group (MWG), Sacombank (STB) and Việt Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB).

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Vinhomes (VHM) and Becamex (BCM) were the three losers.

In the banking group, all stocks moved up with gainers including Military Bank (MBB), Vietcombank (VCB), Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), VietinBank (CTG) and Techcombank (TCB).

Energy stocks also performed positively with gainers such as Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD) and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

Bùi Nguyên Khoa, Head of Macro and BIDV Securities Market (BSC), forecast that the market would continue its upward trend in August and may reach the highest peak of this year. At this stage, the market is going up thanks to psychological factors and cash flow.

The downtrend of interest rates will help the market rebound in the long term after corrections, according to Khoa. The 1.180 - 1,200 zone will be the support of the VN-Index. The market is moving towards the 1,300 mark, which is also a psychological threshold to continue assessing the market's outlook.

A number of bank deposits with high interest rates last year will soon mature. At current interest rates, part of this money will go to short-term investment opportunities such as the stock market.

For investment strategy, Khoa recommended that investors should choose the industries of public investment, retail, import and export industries, real estate and banking.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 1.35 per cent to close at 245.68 points.

Trading value on the northern exchange reached VNĐ1.95 trillion, with a trading volume of 120 million shares. — VNS