At a Petrolimex station in HCM City. Shares of the petrol retailer led the market on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo
Shares rallied on Thursday as the recovery of large-cap stocks helped the VN-Index regain 5.78 points after the previous session's sharp decline, while the foreign bloc extended its net buying streak for the second day.
On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index rose 5.78 points or 0.46 per cent, to close the trading session at 1,274.44 points.
The market's breadth was also positive as the number of gainers surpassed that of losers by 214 to 109. Liquidity on the southern bourse decreased by 34.8 per cent to VNĐ19.1 trillion (US$756.6 million), equivalent to a trading volume of 739 million shares.
The 30 biggest stocks tracker, the VN30-Index, climbed slightly, up 1.01 points or 0.08 per cent, to 1,306.38. Twenty-three ticker symbols in the VN30 basket edged up, while five inched down and two stocks ended flat.
Data compiled by the financial website vietstock.vn showed that Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) was the biggest gainer on the market and led in terms of capitalisation. Shares of the petrol retailer led the market on Thursday, rising 5.56 per cent, contributing more than 0.8 points to the VN-Index gain.
It was followed by Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), which rose 2.36 per cent, Vietnam Rubber Group - Joint Stock Company (GVR), up 1.41 per cent and Hòa Phát Group JSC (HPG), increasing by 0.71 per cent.
Banking industry stocks also performed well on Thursday. Leading the sector was the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), which rose 1.04 per cent. Following were Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (CTG), Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB) and Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), with these stocks increasing between 1.22 and 1.63 per cent.
However, some large-cap stocks faced strong sell-offs. Notably, FPT Corporation (FPT) posted a decrease of 3.03 per cent, contributing to a loss of more than 1.3 points in the VN-Index. Following was Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN), with shares of the national airline continuing to decline by 3.44 per cent.
According to analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities (SHS), short-term investors should maintain a reasonable proportion and consider selling off weaker-performing stocks when the market recovers, if the portfolio is overly expanded. Medium to long-term investors should hold onto their current portfolios and consider increasing their positions, carefully evaluating the second-quarter business results and year-end prospects of leading companies.
The Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) index also finished higher on Tuesday, rising by 0.66 per cent to 242.49 points.
During the session, more than VNĐ1.2 trillion worth of shares were traded, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 56.5 million shares on the northern market.
The foreign bloc extended its net buying streak for a second consecutive day. Specifically, this bloc net bought VNĐ973 billion on HoSE. — VNS