by Vo Mai Nguyen Phuong HANOI, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's stock market rallied on Friday, stopping the downward trend in the recent four consecutive sessions this week. On the country's southern bourse, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index rose 1.79 points, or 0.34 percent, against the previous trading day to close at 520.72 points on Friday. However, it lost 21.31 points, or 4 percent from last Friday's close. This week, VN-Index went down for four consecutive sessions with the lowest level of 518.93 points on Thursday. It began the week with the highest score of 534.38 points. Last week, VN-Index hovered around the 549-point level. On Friday, a total of 45.56 million shares worth 1.55 trillion Vietnamese dong (81.8 million U.S. dollars) changed hands at the HoSE, a sharp decline of 59.5 percent in volume and 59.64 percent in value against last Friday. The liquidity was the lowest during the past one month. Daily trading volume was recorded at 65.41million shares during this week, down 29.23 percent from last week. The average value plunged 31.32 percent to 2.27 trillion Vietnamese dong (119.47 million U.S. dollars) a session. On the northern Vietnam's Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), though the HNX- Index continued its downward trend in three continuous sessions, the decreasing rate seemed to be much slower. It lost 0. 45 points, or 0.26 percent against Thursday to 172.71 points on Friday, and down 11.67 points, or 6.33 percent against last Friday. The HN-Index ran from 172.71 to 182.43 points this week while trading in a narrow band from 183 to 187 points last week. Volumes decreased to 44.38 million shares valued at 1.51 trillion Vietnamese dong (79.47 million U.S. dollars) on Friday, a dramatic fall of 45.72 percent in volume and 48.64 percent in value against last Friday. On the HNX this week, the average trading volume was 50.07 million shares a session, down 45.83 percent from last week. The daily value went down 46.97 percent against that of last week to 1. 75 trillion Vietnamese dong (92.1 million U.S. dollars). Local analysts said VN-Index's rally on Friday was what they expected following continuous drop in the last four trading days. Moreover, HN-Index showed a minor decrease, offering hopes for more positive moves on both trading floors of Vietnam next week. Explaining for the poor performance of Vietnam's stock market this week, local insiders attributed it to the continued uncertainty in overseas markets. Investors' decision was burdened by the fear of a slump of the global markets due to the Greek debt crisis. However, analysts kept optimistic about the rebound of the market in the coming week as it contained positive signs including the bouncing of blue chips, the slowdown of sell-offs and a settling of global situation. 