Investor optimism following a newly announced tax cuts helped lift stocks on both national stock exchanges yesterday.

"Investor sentiment was boosted after the State Securities Commission proposed to extend tax cuts for securities investors through 2013 rather than stopping at the end of this year," said analysts of FPT Securities Co (FPTS).

The commission has also recently proposed tax incentives for new types of investment funds, securities investment companies, voluntary retirement funds as well as a tax exemption for bonus shares.

Additionally, the State Bank of VIet Nam is believed to be preparing to reduce the deposit interest rate ceiling to pave the way for a reduction on other market rates, FPTS's analysts said.
The VN-Index on the HCM City exchange closed yesterday up 0.75 per cent at 386.69 points with the value of trades rising to almost VND484 billion (US$14.4 million), up 24 per cent over Friday's trading value.

The VN30 tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse was also up 0.86 per cent to close at 453.69 points.

Gainers overwhelmed losers by 178-50 overall.

The biggest gainers yesterday were penny and mid-cap shares, such as Bac Giang Exploitable Mineral (BGM), Viet Nam Electricity Construction (VNE), wood processor Duc Long Gia Lai (DLG), Petro Capital Infrastructure Investment (PTL) and PetroVietnam Transportation (PVT), which all hit their ceilings.

Together with Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA), BGM and VNE were also the most active stocks on the HCM City market with each code seeing more than 2 million shares traded.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index jumped 2.03 per cent to close at 52.71 points on an improved turnover of VND244.4 billion ($11.7 million), up 55 per cent over Friday's level.

Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) became the most active code by the end of yesterday's session following a total trade of 5.4 million shares, climbing over 2 per cent to VND5,000 a share.