Shares extended gains for a ninth day on the HCM City Stock Exchange yesterday as blue chips soared on aggressive foreign buys.
The benchmark VN-Index rose 1.91 per cent to a close of 434.19 points while the VN30 tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse was up 2.18 per cent at 509.18 points.

Trading volume grew 21 per cent over Friday to more than 78.3 million shares while value of trades jumped 36 per cent, totalling VND1.14 trillion (US$54.5 million).
Foreign investors increased their buys on large caps yesterday, pushing many of the top 30 shares to their ceiling prices. The biggest gainers included insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF), steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, financial conglomerate Ocean Group (PGC), and property developers Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Tan Tao Industry Investment (ITA).

Foreigners were responsible for a net buy of VND165.4 billion ($7.9 million) on the HCM City bourse.

"Buying demand of foreign investors was most likely from exchange-traded funds (ETFs)," Nguyen Xuan Binh from Bao Viet Securities Co wrote in a report.

"This is not the first time the market has been backed by ETFs. From our viewpoint, one of these funds has increased its capital and has to disburse money into leading stocks in its portfolio in order to strictly follow VN-Index movements," Binh said.
He, however, cautioned this activity was likely to be short-lived and have short-term impacts on market movements.

Penny and mid-cap stocks began to decline on profit-taking, with 27 codes dropping to the floor.

Viet Nam Electricity Construction (VNE) continued to be the most active code yesterday with 2.9 million shares changing hands, rising 4.76 per cent to close at VND6,600.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index closed off 0.35 per cent at 59 points after it surpassed the threshold of 60 in the morning.

Investors were hesitant to buy stocks at high prices, driving down the market. Most blue chips on the bourse declined, including PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), real estate company Sacomreal (SCR) and VNDirect Securities (VND), with losses from 1.5-5.5 per cent.

SHB was still the most active code nationwide on a whopping trade of 15.87 million shares, edging down 1.5 per cent to VND6,500.

Overall, 83 million shares worth VND614.3 billion ($29.4 million) had changed hands by the end of yesterday.

According to Dao Hong Duong, a correction was necessary now as this adjustment would help balance suppy/demand in the short term, limiting the "hot rise" of the market for more sustainable development.