Shares bounced back yesterday as investors showed better confidence and tried to scoop up speculative stocks that were hit by strong selling.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.6 per cent to close at 665.14 points, ending a two-day decline of 1.3 per cent.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.9 per cent to end at 78.57 points. The northern market index had fallen 2.2 per cent during the previous two sessions.

Market trading liquidity increased from the previous session with more than 257.7 million shares being traded, worth VND2.74 trillion (nearly US$122 million).

The figures were up nearly 50 per cent in trading volume and slightly up in trading value from those in Tuesday’s session.

Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC) was the most active stock with more than 78.7 million of the company’s shares being exchanged. HQC surged 6.9 per cent.

The strong recovery of HQC was attributed to investors’ purchasing to lift the stock up after it had plummeted 53 per cent during the previous three trading weeks.

HQC’s boost was good news for other stocks, lifting investor confidence and pulling other speculative stocks such as FLC Group (FLC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai International Agriculture JSC (HNG) and Hoang Huy Investment Services JSC (HHS).

FLC and HNG soared 6.9 per cent each, and HHS jumped 6.8 per cent.

Higher investor confidence also helped large-cap stocks rebound from their losing streak.

Among those stocks, private equity firm Masan Group (MSN) rose 1.8 per cent, property developer Vingroup JSC (VIC) was up 1.1 per cent, Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) added 6.3 per cent and Vietcombank (VCB) advanced 1.2 per cent.

“Investors mostly have no worries before the US central bank concludes its meeting later yesterday as the bank will likely make the first rate hike since December 2015,” Bao Viet Securities Corp (BVSC) said in a note.

Investors sought investments in local stocks as they prepared for the rate increases for a long time and expect the US economy to achieve good growth in the future, BVSC said.

“The coming US rate increase will not have big effects on the global stock markets and Viet Nam’s since fears over the event will be cleared from investors’ minds and make them more confident.” — VNS