Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’sbenchmark VN Index rose slightly on January 12 as recent growth of local stockstriggered investors to sell to make some profit.

The benchmark index on the HCM StockExchange inched up 0.19 percent to close at 1,050.11 points, making gains inall five trading sessions of the week with a weekly growth of 3.7 percent.

The minor HNX Index on the Hanoi StockExchange fell 1.70 percent to end at 120.76 points after increasing 0.75 percenton January 11.

The northern market index has gonethrough a volatile week, growing 1.5 percent from the previous trading week.

The stock market was dominated bylosing stocks, which outnumbered gainers by 275 to 217.

More than 490.5 million shares weretraded on the two local exchanges, worth 11.9 trillion VND (531.5 million USD).

Both local exchanges posted a newrecord high in trading value, which was up 31 percent compared to January 11.

Trading condition among large-capstocks was poor as 21 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in theVN30 Index declined, narrowing the growth of the large-cap index to 0.25 percentfrom 1 percent.

On the sector basis, shares of banks,energy firms, insurance companies, rubber-plastic producers and retailers werethe worst-performing industries.

Those industry indices dropped between1 percent and 2.5 percent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Among those companies, Sai Gon-HanoiBank (SHB) and Sacombank (STB) plunged 4.6 percent each. SHB gained total 11.4 percentin the previous four sessions while STB soared 21.7 percent in a six-dayperiod.

On the opposite side, real estate andsecurities shares were among the best gainers as investor confidence was highin those firms for their earnings prospects.

According to market strategy expert NgoQuoc Hung at Vietinbank Securities Company, the earnings season is revealingcompanies that have posted big profits and plan for sustainable development.

“Worthy opportunities are presentingamong financial services firms and property developers,” Hung said.

Among real estate firms, Da NangHousing Investment Development JSC (NDN) has estimated its net profit for thelast quarter could reach 25.5 billion VND and the figure for the whole lastyear could be 80 billion VND.

The full-year net profit outpaced thefirm’s target by 220 percent. The company shares on Friday surged 5.6 percentto 11,300 VND per share.

According to Sai Gon-Hanoi SecuritiesCompany (SHS), recent market volatility signalled a strong mix among localstocks and sectors as investors attempted to offload parts of their portfolios.

Therefore, the Hanoi-based brokeragefirm forecast the market would encounter difficulties to extend its growth nextweek and the VN Index could move narrowly between 1,040 and 1,060 points.-VNA