REUTERS – Stocks climbed on Thursday, with the S&P 500 advancing to a five-year intraday high on signs of strength in the housing and job markets and on better-than-expected results from online marketplace eBay (EBAY.O). The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-year low last week and housing starts jumped last month to the highest since June 2008. Strength... 

Despite high selling pressure in the afternoon session, the local market still maintained its uptrend on Wednesday thanks to strong performances of many penny stocks, which have replaced large-caps to draw the capital flow of late. On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE), early gains ran into a wall of profit taking later on at the 470-point level where resistance appeared quite strong. The VN-Index... 

The State Securities Commission (SSC) is studying plans to launch more investment funds such as voluntary pension funds, ETFs (exchange traded funds), securities investment funds and property investment funds to diversify products on the market and meet demands of investors. Nguyen Thanh Long, head of the Fund Management Department under SSC, said that some funds in recent times haven’t operated... 

Banks’ earning profiles in 2012 considerably changed from the previous year, with a significant drop in profits from credit operations and a greater share in service incomes, said a senior source from a big bank. Several banks have obtained data on performances of their parent banks in 2012. In terms of profits, banks can be classified into three groups. The first group consists of those with relatively... 

The current number of tourist accommodation facilities nationwide is only enough to serve 42.2 million local and foreign tourists this year, but Vietnam is still in need of more three- to five-star hotels to cater to the growing number of visitors, a tourism official said. Vietnam currently has 13,500 tourist accommodation facilities with some 285,000 rooms, said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the Vietnam...