Hanoi (VNA) - Shares rebounded on January 20 on the two national stockexchanges as investors started their bets on year-end earnings of companies.

Onthe HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index added 0.6 percent to close at 686.3points. The northern market index dropped 0.34 percent in the last two trades.

Onthe Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index regained 0.4 percent to end at 83.2points, narrowing the loss of 1.3 percent in the two previous sessions.

Overall,the market condition improved as 223 stocks rose, 190 declined and 281 remainedflat.

Fifteenof total 20 sectors tracked by Vietstock Finance gained value and only fivetumbled. Of which, the construction sector and construction materialmanufacturing sector were the biggest gainers with average gains of 1.44 percentand 1.28 percent.

Leadingcompanies in these sectors on the two exchanges like FLC Group (FLC), Kinh BacCity Development (KBC), CII Bridges & Roads Investment and Vinaconex (VCG)advanced between 0.6 percent and 7 percent each.

Thesestocks were also among the top most heavily-traded shares on the two markets.

Accordingto stock analysts at Viet Dragon Securities Co (VDS), stocks of companies thatpromise positive 2016 earnings could be on investors’ radars.

FollowingCircular 155, all listed companies have to release their financial statementswithin 20 days of the last day of every quarter.

Somecompanies started to disclose their preliminary business results for 2016,which if showed impressive performance, could provide driving momentum for thenext market upturn, VDS’s analysts wrote in a market report.

However,some other securities firms maintain a neutral view on market outlook as cashwill likely continue to be withdrawn from the market to meet shopping needs asthe Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday draws near.

Manylarge-cap stocks led the market’s recovery yesterday, with 22 of the top 30largest shares by market capitalisation and liquidity on the main bourse in HCMcity climbing and only six falling.

Leadinggainers included dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), lenders BIDV (BID) and Vietinbank(CTG), PV Gas (GAS), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), FPT Corp (FPT),steelmakers Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG).

Thosecompanies are forecast to report high earnings prospects for 2016.

Tradingvolume increased slightly over January 19 to reach 112.5 million shares on thetwo markets but value of trades decreased 4 percent to 2.4 trillion VND (106.2million USD).

Foreign investors were net buyers on January 20,collecting shares worth 219 billion VND on the two exchanges, soaring 147 percentcompared to the previous day’s net buy value.-VNA