Indices inched higher in a choppy session on Tuesday, boosted by pillar stocks in the afternoon trade.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index ended the trading day at 1,241.62 points, a pickup of 10.27 points, or 0.83 per cent. It dropped slightly in the morning due to strong selling pressure in many large-cap stocks.
Statistics showed that the market's breadth was positive with 315 stocks increasing, while 150 stocks declined. However, liquidity on the southern bourse was lower than the previous session, of which matching value on HoSE was down by 0.38 per cent to nearly VND15.2 trillion (nearly US$650 million).
The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index reported a climb of 9.72 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 1,265.97 points. Nineteen stocks of the VN30 basket edged higher, while ten slid and one stayed flat.
The benchmark was able to reverse the morning course as four pillar stocks posted strong performance in the late trade. These stocks were Vinhomes (VHM), Vietcombank (VCB), Vingroup (VIC) and Sabeco (SAB) with gains of at least 2.5 per cent.
Other stocks in realty, information technology (IT), and retail sectors, such as Novaland (NVL), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) and FPT Corporation (FPT), also lifted investors' sentiment, supporting the index.
On the contrary, lingering selling force still weighed on some big stocks, especially in the banking sector, in which BIDV (BID) lost the most in market capitalisation, down 1.28 per cent.
The HNX-Index also rose for two consecutive sessions on Tuesday. Accordingly, the northern benchmark index rose 1.22 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 295.84 points.
During the session, nearly 114 million shares were traded on HNX, worth over VND2.2 trillion.
Meanwhile, the UP-Index on the UPCoM Exchange recorded its sixth straight rally on Tuesday, with the index up 0.22 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 90.13 points.
Foreign investors were net buyers on both main exchanges, with a total net bought value of VND381.29 billion. Of which, they net bought VND370.47 billion on HoSE and VND10.82 billion on HNX, while net sold VND7.24 billion on UPCoM. — VNS