Investors increased their activity yesterday afternoon, pushing shares up on both national stock exchanges.

Values of trades on the HCM City Stock Exchange jumped 50 per cent over Tuesday's level, totalling VND867.79 billion (US$41.5 million).

Blue chips increased substantially, lifting the benchmark VN-Index by 1.19 per cent to a close of 406.10 points, while the VN30, tracking the top 30 shares, was up 1.45 per cent to stand at 475.93 points. The top 30 shares traded strongly, with many among the most active codes on the southern bourse yesterday. Property developer Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) was the most active code with 4.4 million shares changing hands, with value rising 4.55 per cent to close at VND4,600 a share.

Vietinbank (CTG) closely followed with a total trade of 3.2 million shares, supported by foreign buys of 755,000 shares at the ceiling price. CTG jumped 3.57 per cent to VND20,300 a share by the end of the session.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also rose 1.6 per cent to a close of 55.92 points, with trading value improving slightly to VND405 billion ($19.3 million).
Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) held a shareholders' meeting yesterday to review the bank's operations this year. It announced a loss of VND1.7 trillion ($81.3 million) from gold trading activities this year but expected a total profit of VND1.2 trillion ($57.4 million). Ending yesterday, ACB gained 2.5 per cent to settle at VND16,400 a share.

Foreign investors were net buyers yesterday on both markets, picking up a combined VND24 billion ($1.1 million) worth of shares.
Mixed messages

Viet Nam's economic situation is decidedly mixed. While the inflation rate and trade deficit were good this year considering the continuing global situation, the country's growth was much lower than initially expected. However, the Government have committed to launch a bailout package for the dismal real estate market and inject money to deal with bad debts in the banking system. This indicates a willingness from the Government to look at the long term picture.

"Investors should make long-term investments in the stock market at this time," said Duong Van Chung, director of MB Securities Co's Private Client Services.

"Based on my personal experience, the stock market is quite sensitive to macro economics and it is likely to improve based on macro economic indicators released by the Government for the next 6-12 months," Chung said, adding that speculative money will react more quickly to the Government's policies in the first months of next year.