Steel products stored at Hoa Phat's facility in Hai Duong Province. The steelmaker's shares rose 0.7 per cent on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

The Vietnamese stock market edged up on Friday as large-cap stocks varied on exchange-traded fund reviews.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.36 per cent to end at 864.47 points.

The VN-Index struggled to post a weekly gain of 1.37 per cent amid increased profit-taking pressure.

The minor HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange closed Friday at 109.81 points, up 0.16 per cent from the previous day.

The northern market index increased by nearly 2.6 per cent this week.

Nearly 375 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND5.42 trillion (US$233 million).

Market sentiment was quiet on Friday as investors awaited the US-based exchange-traded fund iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF to complete its quarterly portfolio review, MB Securities Co (MBS) said in its daily report.

The US fund is investing in some large-cap stocks such as property firms Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), steelmaker Hoa Phat (HPG), Vietcombank (VCB), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN), aviation business Vietjet (VJC), brewer Sabeco (SAB), and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

Among those stocks, VIC ended flat, VHM and VRE were up 2.1-2.2 per cent, VCB increased by 0.8 per cent, VNM inched up 0.2 per cent, GAS, SAB and HPG rose 0.7 per cent each, while MSN and VJC fell 0.2-0.3 per cent.

The fund’s quarterly review had little impact on the overall market as other foreign investors kept net-buying Vietnamese shares, MBS said.

The review resulted in net foreign selling of more than VND83 billion on the Vietnamese stock market on Friday.

Foreign investors net-bought a total of VND275 billion worth of Vietnamese shares on Thursday.

Amid selling pressure from the US fund, the large-cap tracker VN30-Index inched up 0.27 per cent with half of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity declining.

The variation of large-cap stocks showed investors were looking for temporary opportunities in the mid-cap and small-cap sectors, MBS added.

The mid-cap tracker VNMID-Index and small-cap tracker VNSML-Index on Friday gained 0.66 per cent and 0.86 per cent, respectively.

The local stock market had shown signs of slowing in recent days as stocks had struggled to increase, Thanh Cong Securities (TCSC) said in a note.

“Stocks are varying and their trading is becoming more unpredictable, making it harder for investors to earn profits at the moment,” the company said. — VNS