Vietnamese shares finished the week higher, ending several days of sell-offs with a rebound fuelled by securities and steel stocks.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index rose 0.82 per cent to close at 1,262.33 points.
The VN-Index had lost 0.54 per cent in the last two days.
More than 541.7 million shares worth VND13 trillion (US$555.7 million) were traded on the southern exchange.
The market's breadth was positive with 273 stocks climbing, of which eight hit ceiling prices, while 166 declined.
The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, jumped 0.68 per cent, to 1,280.96 points.
In the VN-30 index, gainers included Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), FPT Corporation (FPT), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), HDBank (HDB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Military Bank (MBB), Masan Group (MSN), Mobile World Group (MWG), Novaland (NVL), Vingroup (VIC) and VPBank (VPB).
Banking stocks were darlings of the market with gainers including Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Viet Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB), Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).
The steel stock group attracted cash flow and increased sharply, with steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG) soaring 2.4 per cent. Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Nam Kim Group (NKG), Pomina Steel Corporation (POM) and Tien Len Steel Group Joint Stock Company (TLH) also made gains.
Securities stocks also climbed at the end of the session, namely Asia - Pacific Securities Joint Stock Company (APS), Viet Nam Bank For Industry & Trade Securities JSC (CTS), VNDirect Securities Co (VND), Bank for Invesment & Development of Vietnam Securities Company (BSI) and VIX Securities Joint Stock Company (VIX).
"It’s expected that the threshold of 1,245 points of VN-Index and 1,268 points of VN30-Index will continue to be a good support level in the near future. Therefore, investors could wait to buy and accumulate stocks that retreat to the base price or strong support level. However, investors should also consider taking profit when the stock rises quickly to the resistance area," said Viet Dragon Securities Co.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 1.08 per cent to end Friday at 303.42 points.
The index had lost 1.11 per cent Thursday.
Liquidity also increased here with nearly 69 million shares worth VND1.5 trillion being exchanged. — VNS