Shares narrowed gains towards the end of the trading session on Thursday but still managed to post slight gains, witnessing a large divergence among large-caps.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.15 per cent to end the session at 1,352.76 points.

The index had closed Wednesday trade at 1,350.68 points, up 0.81 per cent.

Some 997.6 million shares worth nearly VND23.3 trillion (US$1 billion) were traded on the southern exchange.

The afternoon session witnessed a wide divergence among large-caps’ prices.

The blue-chip share tracker VN30-Index climbed 0.34 per cent to 1,458.23 points.

Fourteen of the 30 largest stocks by market valuation and trading liquidity increased while 13 decreased. Three stayed unchanged.

Stocks in the “Vin” family gained and supported the overall market, with notable gainers of Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

A series of residential real estate stocks suddenly dropped in the afternoon and pressured the indices, including Novaland (NVL), Phat Dat Real Estate (PDR), Ha Do Group JSC (HDG), Investment and Construction Development Joint Stock Corporation (DIG), Hudland Real Estate Investment and Development JSC (HLD) and Phuc Hung Holdings JSC.

Many other blue-chips also sufffered selling pressure such as insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Vibank (VIB), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Techcombank (TCB).

“The market maintained the tug-of-war trend around 1,350 points in today's session. Market breadth turned negative with liquidity rebounding, showing short-term profit-taking pressure at the psychological 1,350 points,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Foreign investors were net sellers on both HoSE and HNX. With the above trend, the market is likely to still accumulate around 1,350 points until the investment cash flow differentiates to welcome the third quarter business results,” it said.

Foreign investors' net sold VND374.0 billion on HOSE, including Hoa Phat Group (HPG) with VND89.8 billion, Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC) with VND69.0 billion, and Duc Giang Chemicals Group (DGC) with VND59.1 billion. They were net sellers on HNX with the value of VND34.07 billion.

On a sector basis, the Vietnamese stock market was driven by the real estate, securities, healthcare and retail sectors.

Their sector indices rose between 0.05 per cent and 3.91 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the other side, losers included insurance, technology, logistics, rubber production, food and beverage, wholesale, food and beverage, construction materials and banking sectors.

Foreign investors net bought VND881.19 billion on the HOSE, including Vingroup (VIC) (VND937.96 billion), Vinamilk (VNM) (VND36.43 billion) and Masan Group (MSN) (VND6.73 billion).

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.66 per cent, to 361.02 points.

During the session, some 199 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth nearly VND3.4 trillion. VNS