The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange added 0.74 per cent to close Thursday at 959.28 points with 252 shares climbing, 170 declining and 94 closing flat.

Meanwhile on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased 1.97 per cent to end the session at 144.62 points.

The market breadth here was negative, however, with the number of losers outnumbering the gainers by 76-69 while another 208 remained unchanged.

Banks were still the main driver for market gains when 13 out of total 15 listed lenders on the two bourses increased and only two declined.

Ha Noi listed banks including Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) were the biggest gainers with growth of 3.9 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. In HCM City, Military Bank (MBB) rose 2.5 per cent while others such as Vietcombank (VCB), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and Techcombank (TCB) increased by more than 1 per cent.

Blue chips also maintained good growth on Thursday. Twenty-two of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM City exchange rallied and only five slumped. Another three were flat.

Big gainers included Refrigeration Electrical Engineering (REE) which jumped 5.1 per cent while Mobile World Investment (MWG), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Phu Nhuan Jewelry (PNJ) were all up by more than 2 per cent.

Liquidity fell, however, with nearly 344 million shares worth more than VND6 trillion (US$260 million) traded in HCM City’s market and 57.5 million shares worth VND948 billion exchanged in Ha Noi.

According to Bao Viet Securities Co’s analysts, the market is forecast to increase slightly with a mixture of ups and downs during its uptrend. In addition, the positive path of the global stock market will continue to support the domestic market.

“In the meantime, the market will pay attention to the Q4 and 2020 business results of listed companies. Stock groups will show a clearer divergence shortly,” they wrote in the daily market report, saying some notable sectors in this period were real estate, oil and gas, retail, securities and steel.

“Overall, we maintain our view that the VN-Index shall fluctuate from the zone of 900-910 points to 970-990 points to create new consolidation in the short term,” they said.

Net selling by foreign traders was negative in Thursday’s trade. The foreign sector was responsible for a total net sell value of VND148 billion in the two markets. Their sells focused on blue chips such as steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vinamilk (VNM) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI). — VNS