Investors continued to pour money into the market, pushing the index to a gain of 24.59 points to 1147.66.

Trading last week closed with 62 gainers and 24 losers.

Thirty-seven among 62 gainers hit the ceiling price by 5 percent, including mainly blue chips.

Market analysts said demand was outstripping supply due to the upward trend of the market.

The IMF sent a recommendation to the State Securities Commission to increase strict control over the market to rein in the volatile growth, which could end in disaster for investors and the market on the whole.

Investors bid for 17.7 million shares, up 16 percent on the previous session while offers decreased by 7 percent to 14.6 million shares.

The bourse closed with a volume of 11 million shares changing hands worth a total VND1.24 trillion (US$77.5 million), up 12 percent over the previous session.

Heavy hitters

Sacombank led the market in terms of trading volume with over one million shares traded late last week. followed by PPC (Pha Lai Thermo Power Joint Stock Co.) with 587,230 shares.

IT developer FPT bounced back increasing by VND30,000 to VND645,000 per unit after two decreasing sessions in a row.

Foreign investors made up the bulk of buyers last Friday with 2.1 million shares worth VND400 billion, making up 32 percent of the market trading value.

Their stockpiles mainly focused on heavyweights such as PPC, VSH (hydropower builder) and VNM (Vinamilk dairy giant) among others.

The Hanoi market continued to plunge, with the index decreasing 5.8 points to 418.88.

In related developments, Power Company No2 (PC2) and Dai Viet Securities Co (DVSC) have entered into a cooperative agreement.

Following a deal signed last Friday, PC2 will become a major shareholder in the securities company which expected to increase its chartered capital to VND250 billion ($15.6 million) from the current VND44 billion this year.

However, further information on the power company’s holdings ownership was not available.

In turn, DVSC will pump capital into the state power company and help develop new projects.

Under the agreement, the securities company also reserves the right to be one of two consultants when PC2 offers shares on the over-the-counter market by the second quarter.

The second consultant will be An Binh Securities, an offshoot of the An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank.

PC2 is set to issue shares totaling VND1.6 trillion, or 20 percent of its chartered capital, and submit applications to list on the stock market in the fourth quarter.

The unlisted-power company distributes electricity to 20 southern cities and provinces including the southern Ho Chi Minh metro and neighbor Dong Nai Province.

DVSC has reported profits of VND30 billion in the first two months. Its original target was set at VND50 billion for the whole year.