HANOI: Despite choppy sessions last week, the domestic stock market still posted a weekly gain, with the VN-Index breaking over to the 1,200 point-level.

However, the recovery trend is challenged as liquidity stays low, while investors are likely to be reluctant to return to the market this week after long holidays.

This week, the market only had two trading days: yesterday and today.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed last week at 1,209.52 points, hovering in a range of 1,200 to 1,211 points, while the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange was last traded at 226.82 points.

For the week, the former gained nearly 3% and the latter increased 2.7%.

Last week, the liquidity on HoSE reached 82.79 trillion dong (US$3.3bil), marking a significant decline of 36.6% from the previous week.

Foreign investors were net sellers, with a total value of over 1.1 trillion dong. The VN-Diamond fund certificates experienced the strongest selling pressure, with a value amounting to more than 1.6 trillion dong. The market’s recovery was focused on stocks that reported positive business results so far this year.

 - ANN