HÀ NỘI — Shares rose for a second day this week but liquidity continued to decline, showing investor scepticism about the market outlook in the short term.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index added 0.45 per cent to close Wednesday at 1,459.33 points. The southern bourse’s index also gained 0.45 per cent on Tuesday.

The market breadth was positive with 273 shares rising, 155 falling and 82 closing unchanged.

Financial shares were the market drivers. Twelve of the 18 listed lenders on HCM City’s exchange gained value while only four dropped and two were flat. Vietcombank was the biggest contributor to the VN-Index with a growth of 1.7 per cent, followed by Military Bank (MBB) which rose 1.6 per cent and Techcombank (TCB) increased 0.9 per cent.

Insurance companies also performed well with Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Bảo Minh Insurance (BMI) and Petrolimex Insurance (PGI) climbing 2 per cent each and BIDV Insurance (BIC) up over 1 per cent.

Big gainers also included PV Gas (GAS), brewer Sabeco (SAB), property developers Becamex IDC Corp (BCM), Đất Xanh Group (DXG) and No Va Land Investment Group (NVL) with increases of between 1 per cent and 3.6 per cent.

However, liquidity was drained with just 624 million shares worth VNĐ18.7 trillion (US$813 million) being traded, the lowest since February 7 and much lower than the average of VNĐ26.1 trillion since the beginning of this year.

“The transactions were moderate and volatility by sectors as a whole was not large. The fact that the VN-Index traded above the reference threshold throughout today is a positive signal if taking into account the complicated situation in the global financial market,” market analysts wrote in vietstock.vn.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.6 per cent to end at 446.18 points.

Liquidity also decreased sharply here with just 83 million shares worth VNĐ2.3 trillion being exchanged, down 20 per cent in both volume and value compared to the previous session.

According to analysts at Viet Dragon Securities JSC (VDSC), the selling pressure temporarily weakened but liquidity remained at a low level, around the 20-day average, showing that the trading sentiment is still cautious since the market lost its support levels.

“It’s expected that the VN-Index will retest the range of 1,460 -1,465 points and this area might put pressure on the index. Therefore, investors still need to be cautious and could take advantage of the market's recovery to take profits,” Phương Phạm, VDSC’s analyst wrote in a note.

Foreign traders were net sellers on both exchanges, unloading shares worth a net value of VNĐ306 billion.— VNS