The stock market finished higher Wednesday, boosted by bargain-hunting force after a two-day correction.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the trading day at 1,039.66 points, an increase of 1.12 per cent.

The index had lost a total of 3.08 per cent in the last two sessions.

The market’s breadth returned to positive territory with more stocks recovering. Specifically, 319 ticker symbols on HoSE added points, while 177 dropped lower.

Trading value on the southern bourse reached VNĐ13 trillion (US$528.6 million), equal to a trading volume of nearly 680 million shares.

The index’s reversal was mainly driven by gains in some large-cap stocks as recent sharp falls stimulated some investors to increase stock proportions in their portfolios.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also rose higher, up 1.18 per cent, to 1,051.65 points.

In the VN30 basket, 22 stocks advanced, seven stocks declined and one ended flat.

Statistics from finance website vietstock.vn showed that SSI Securities Inc (SSI) recorded the best performance yesterday and led the bullish trend. The company's shares soared 5.4 per cent.

Other pillar stocks supporting the uptrend were FPT Corporation (FPT), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), and Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR).

Some banking stocks, however, performed negatively and restrained the increase of the market, with losers including VPBank (VPB), VietinBank (CTG) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID).

But many banks still maintained growth, including Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Việt Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB), Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

"Liquidity increased, showing that supply is still putting a lot of pressure on the market, but cash flow is also starting to move at low prices. The overall market trend and development is still negative, although the VN index has retreated near the support area of 1,015 points," said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

"In the short term, it is likely that the market will be supported in this area and there will be a technical rally to check supply and demand. Therefore, investors still need to be cautious before the market goes down. However, you can temporarily consider good price zones for short-term buying in some stocks that have good fundamentals and have recently fallen deep into the support zone."

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rebounded, up 1.69 per cent, to end at 209.65 points.

During the trading session, nearly VNĐ1.4 trillion worth of shares, equal to nearly 95 million shares, was traded on the northern market. — VNS