Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese sharesbounced back on January 18 after the previous day’s sharp fall sent stocks downto attractive prices, thus triggering investors to bottom-fish.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM StockExchange gained 1.5 percent to close at 1,050.25 points, recouping more thanhalf of its loss in the previous session.

It suffered its worst decline rate in ayear of 2.66 percent on January 17 to total a two-session loss of 2.7 percent.

The minor HNX Index on the Hanoi StockExchange rose 1.22 percent to end at 121.90 points after having decreased by atotal of 1.3 percent in the previous two days.

More than 364.6 million shares were tradedon the two local exchanges, worth 8.74 trillion VND (388.4 million USD).

The trading figures were down 10.9 percentin volume and 11.3 percent in value compared to the January 17 numbers.

The market trading condition was positivewith 246 gaining stocks against 220 declining, while 126 other stocks wereunchanged.

Brokerage companies attributed the marketgrowth to investors’ bottom-fishing to scoop up stocks that fell on January 17.

According to Viet Dragon Securities Company(VDSC), the sharp fall of the stock market may have resulted from investors’profit-taking after the market had gained substantially in recent weeks.

As trading liquidity remained high and nonews was strong enough to have negative impacts on the market, VDSC said themarket was unlikely to decline further in the near future.

Such a market fall could offeropportunities to investors to purchase low-priced stocks before the marketturned upward, it said.

BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said thatinvestors made strong purchases for stocks that had fallen significantly on January17 and on the first trading half of January 18, thus boosting the stock market.

Financial-banking, energy, food andbeverage, and real estate stocks recorded the highest growth rates on January18 to bolster the market’s increase, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Eximbank (EIB), Sacombank (STB), Saigon-HanoiBank (SHB) and Vietcombank (VCB) pushed the banking sector up, while stronggains were also recorded in brokerage firms such as Saigon Securities Inc(SSI), VNDirect Securities (VND) and HCM City Securities (HCM).

Real estate, food and beverage, and energystocks that rose strongly included Vincom Retail (VRE), Thanh Thanh Cong Tay NinhSugar Co (SBT), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) and PetroVietnam Technical Services(PVS).

However, the market’s strong growth on January18 does not mean the market has turned fully positive as market tradingliquidity fell in terms of both volume and value compared to the previoussession, Saigon-Hanoi Securities Co (SHS) said.

“The market needs more time to stabilise atthe current high levels and investors should be cautious with the highlyvolatile trading condition,” SHS said. - VNA