The benchmark VN-Index made a rebound on March 12 on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, led by bank and property stock gains.

TheVN-Index edged up 0.34 percent to close the session at 588.53 points,while the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value andliquidity, increased by a slower pace of 0.16 percent to end at 620.24points.

Bank shares rebounded on the information of positivecredit growth in the first month of the year. Major banks such asVietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), and the Bank for Investment andDevelopment of Vietnam (BID) posted modest gains of 0.5-0.8 percent,while others like Sacombank (STB), Military Bank (MBB) and Eximbank(EIB) rose back to the reference price.

Property stock growth also helped the market recover.

FLCGroup (FLC), the most active code with 13.1 million shares traded,increased 0.86 percent to finish at 11,700 VND (0.55 USD) a share.

However,overall trading on the southern bourse decreased, with just 83 millionshares worth over 1.4 trillion VND (65.4 million USD), down 10 percentcompared with the previous session.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, oil and gas stock slumps pulled the HNX-Index down 0.17 percent to close at 85.87 points.

Weaktrading pushed both market volume and value down 20 percent from theprevious day's levels, totaling 30.4 million shares worth 439 billionVND (20.5 million USD).

KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Co(KLF) and F.I.T Investment Co (FIT) were the most heavily-traded stockshere with 2.2 million shares traded on each code. Both ended flat, at10,600 VND a KLF share and 18,000 VND a FIT share.

Foreigninvestors remained net sellers in both markets but their net sell valuedeclined 76 percent against the previous session, totaling just nearly12 billion VND (561,000 USD) worth of shares.-VNA