Robust growth of speculative stocks, particularly realty, construction and securities, helped push up both stock indices and liquidity on the two exchanges last week.

Meanwhile, trading on blue chips was more sluggish due to rising profit-taking pressures.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index gained a cumulative 1.82 per cent during the week, and closed Friday's session at 589.35 points.

Trading also improved substantially over the previous week, when the daily trading volume increased 42.2 per cent, averaging nearly 111 million shares, and was valued at over VND1.8 trillion (US$85.3 million) per session.

Of note, speculative stocks were the largest gainers, led by construction groups, with an average growth of 5.94 per cent. Also, securities stocks rose 4.47 per cent, on average, followed by real estate shares, increasing 3.25 per cent.

During the week, construction and real estate shares took turns as the most active stocks on the HCM City's market, including FLC Group (FLC), Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp (ITA), Hoang Quan Consulting Trading Service Real Estate Corp (HQC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) and Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corp (KBC).

According to analysts from SHB Securities Company, investors remain optimistic about the forecast for second-quarter and first-half corporate earnings reports of listed companies. Particularly, realty stocks that benefited most from the possibility that the lending package, worth VND30 trillion ($1.4 billion) for the real estate sector, will expand to take in more customers. This information contributed to the soaring of the liquidity of real estate shares.

By contrast, blue chips were mixed as they fell in the first sessions of the week due to rising profit-taking pressure, but recovered in the final sessions. Rallies of major shares, such as dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), PV Gas (GAS), VinGroup (VIC) and Vietcombank (VCB), helped lift the VN-Index.

Overall, the VN30, tracking the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, was up 2.3 per cent to end at 631.02 points.

Le Thi Bich Hang, analyst of FPT Securities Co, said the market would likely continue to rise this week, as the main trend on both stock exchanges was still marked by a slight increase and accumulation of value.

"Apart from VNM, BVH, GAS, VIC, VCG and Masan Group (MSN), which have gained significantly during the past period, other large-cap stocks are continuing to accumulate value and will likely increase this week. This group of stocks will help sustain the market uptrend," Hang wrote in a research report.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also added 2.4 per cent to close at 79.44 points on Friday. Liquidity remained high, with the daily trading volume up 34.3 per cent over the previous week, averaging 72.5 million shares, and valued at VND748.2 billion ($35.5 million) per session.

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers on the two stock exchanges, though their net buying value declined 35.6 per cent from the previous week, with a combined value of VND235 billion ($11.1 million).

According to Vietcombank Securities Co, the majority of foreign purchases came from the two exchange-traded funds, Market Vectors Viet Nam (VNM) and FTSE Viet Nam. These two funds finished their portfolios' restructuring last week, but are continuing to buy local shares with modest values.

VNS/VNN