Vietnamese shares advanced on Wednesday on the back of large-caps but trading liquidity remained low to prove cautious investor sentiment and signal volatile sessions to come.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.96 per cent to end at 1,030.53 points, recovering from a slim fall made earlier in the day.

The southern market index dropped 1.76 per cent on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 0.15 per cent to close at 116.66 points, ending a two-day decline of 2.8 per cent.

About VND4.35 trillion (US$193.6 million) worth of more than 152.5 million shares was traded on the two local exchanges, including 123 million shares exchanged via order-matching transactions.

The trading figures were down 42.2 per cent in volume and 39.3 per cent in value compared to Tuesday.

The market trading condition was positive with 262 gaining stocks against 166 declining ones.

According to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Company (SHS), a significant reduction of trading liquidity on Wednesday raised some concerns over the market’s sustainable growth despite it scoring higher at the end of the session.

“The market trading liquidity posted the lowest figures in the past year with only 123 million shares traded via order-matching transactions on both local bourses,” SHS said in its daily report.

“Investors were clearly still worried about potential risks that international developments may put on the local market including the US central bank’s meeting on Thursday.”

Cautious investor sentiment drove attention to large-cap stocks, which proved to be a safe choice at the moment, lifting the large-cap VN30 Index up nearly 1 per cent to 1,018.59 points with 19 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advancing.

Blue chips in the VN30 basket that saw share prices up included PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), petrol firm Petrolimex (PLX), Vietcombank (VCB), property developer Vingroup (VIC) and steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG) with minimum growth of 2.9 per cent.

Those were also largest stocks in their own sectors, driving those industry indices up between 1.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

“As the VN Index has entered the range of 1,020-1,070 points, there are likely volatile sessions ahead,” SHS added.

The market could struggle and go sideways today, and it would need great efforts to break through the short-term settlement range of 1,005-1,045 points so that the market trend becomes clearer, SHS forecast. — VNS