Banking stocks lead market gains                                      Shares edged up on both the national stock exchanges on February 26, after dropping in the morning trading session, as the high capital flows supported the benchmark indices, especially banking stocks. Although the State Securities Commission denied rumours that the regulation for a foreign stake increase will be passed this week, the flow of capital into the market continued to be large. More than 3.6 trillion VND (171.4 million USD) was injected into the market on the day. On the HCM City Exchange, the VN-Index ended the day at 598.81 points and approached the 590-point level. More than 157.7 million shares were traded, with a total trading value of about 2.76 trillion VND (131.4 million USD). Tracking the southern city's top shares by capitalisation and liquidity, the VN30-Index edged up 0.96 per cent to end at 667.91 points. Gainers at 16 overwhelmed losers at 7. After a strong flow of capital in recent trading sessions, stocks of the real estate sector experienced profit taking on February 26. Meanwhile, banking stocks rose to become the most actively traded, despite bad debt disclosures. The index of the banking stocks (VS-Banking) posted the highest gains on the market, with a rise of 2.23 percent. Advancers of the banking sectors included Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB) and Vietcombank (VCB), which helped the indices to close higher. Stock of real estate developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) added value for three consecutive trading days, with a rise of 6.9 per cent to reach its ceiling price of 28,000 VND (1.33 USD) per share, despite net selling by foreign investors. More than 9.9 million shares of Hoang Anh Gia Lai were traded on the day. PetroVietnam Transportation Corporation (PVT) also hit its ceiling price of 14,900 VND (0.7 USD) per share, and its stock price increased by 6.4 percent. On the Hanoi Exchange, the HNX-Index experienced its fourth straight day of gains and rose 0.66 per cent to close at 82.79 points. The HNXFF-Index advanced 1.03 percent to reach 81.91 points. With more than 93 million shares exchanged, the trading value was 900 million VND (42.8 million USD). Foreign investors bought shares worth 43.33 billion VND (20.6 million USD) in net value, including those of Vietcombank (VCB), Masan Group (MSN), PetroVietnam Drilling (PVD) and Bao Viet Group (BVH).-VNA