Investors watch market movements at Maybank Kim Eng stock trading floor in HCM City. A strong performance by large-cap shares last week helped lift the benchmark VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange by nearly 2 per cent. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— The positive performance of large-cap shares last week helped raise the benchmark VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange by nearly 2 per cent.

The VN30 tracking the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation and liquidity on the bourse also climbed 1.6 per cent to finish Friday at over 557 points.

Last week, the Ministry of Finance decided to hike petrol prices again, but the impact on the stock market was short-lived as shares still advanced strongly, particularly on Friday when the VN-Index gained 7 points, or 1.39 per cent, to close at 503.76.

Trading improved over the previous week, with the daily volume rising 31.5 per cent, averaging more than 45.8 million shares worth VND1.1 trillion (US$52.4 million).

Net buys by foreign companies in blue chips positively affected domestic trading. After many weeks of unloading shares, foreign investors returned to be net buyers on the HCM City market, bringing the net buy value to VND5.5 billion ($262,000).

Shares were purchased in PV Gas (GAS) worth $2.45 million; Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAG), $1.6 million; Hoa Phat Group (HPG), $1.1 million; and VinGroup (VIC), $833,300.

According to Nguyen Quang Minh, head of the stock analysis department at the financial website vietstock.vn, trading by overseas investors has an important impact on the domestic market.

Minh said robust foreign buys did not necessarily result in an uptrend but if they sold out shares continuously, the risks for a downtrend would be very high.

He pointed out the VN-Index fell sharply in June following a month of foreign net selling.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up marginally by 0.06 points to close Friday's session at 63.16 points.

Trading also increased slightly over the previous week, reaching 20.2 million shares worth VND159.5 billion ($7.6 million).

Foreign investors also actively bought shares on the northern bourse, spending a combined VND24.5 billion ($1.2 million).

Enterprises began to report their business results in the second quarter and the first half of the year. Early results are relatively positive with some companies posting high profits and this is expected to continue to sustain the market uptrend this week.

In addition, trading values on both exchanges have been modest in recent sessions and analysts anticipate that the application of extending trading hours to 3pm on the two bourses, which begins from today, will help improve liquidity.

"If the rising momentum is maintained with the increase of liquidity, the likelihood of an uptrend will be confirmed," analysts of FPT Securities Co wrote in a report.

In this case, they suggested investors increase holdings in stocks with stable and positive business results. — VNS