A PetroVietnam Power facility. The company shares gained 1.6 per cent on Wednesday. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Việt Nam’s benchmark VN-Index made marginal gains on Wednesday as investors remained sceptical amid a lack of supportive news.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.09 per cent to close at 928.76 points.

The benchmark fell a total of 1.01 per cent in the first two trading days of the week.

More than 192 million shares were traded on Wednesday, worth VND3.53 trillion (US$151.5 million).

The figure included 161.8 million shares that were exchanged via order-matching deals, worth VND2.54 trillion.

Market breadth was positive with 202 of 418 stocks increasing. Meanwhile, 152 stocks declined.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index rose 0.25 per cent while mid-cap and small-cap trackers were up 0.02 per cent and 0.95 per cent, respectively.

The market struggled during the day and only finished higher as large-cap stocks recovered, according to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC).

Sixteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket advanced. Their growth ranged from 0.1 per cent to 6.9 per cent.

Among large-cap gainers were FLC Faros Construction (ROS), jewellery firm PNJ (PNJ), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), VPBank (VPB), food and beverage company Masan (MSN), Vietinbank (CTG) and PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW).

ROS surged 6.9 per cent after having been sold off in the previous three days, losing more than 19 per cent in value.

Those companies’ stocks also helped boost real estate, retail, electricity, mining and energy, and food and beverage indices between 0.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Slight market growth and moderate trading liquidity figure showed investors are cautious at the moment, TCSC said in its daily report.

They are sceptical about the market’s short-term growth, the company said.

Market trading conditions are not very negative as sectors have taken turns to cushion the market amid the lack of supportive news, TCSC added.

The benchmark may keep struggling in the coming days and settle in the 920-940 point zone as the market seeks a balance point and recovers after having suffered from negative global news, the brokerage said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.70 per cent to end at 109.30 points.

The northern market index increased by 0.46 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 30.7 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth nearly VND366.6 billion. — VNS