Vietnamese stocks recovered to end higher in pre-Christmas trading on Friday, largely on the strength of a handful of banking and securities blue-chips.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index gained 1.38 per cent to end Friday at 1,477.03 points.
The index had plunged 1.40 per cent to end Thursday at 1,456.96 points.
The market's breadth was positive with 270 gainers and 191 losers.
Liquidity declined compared to the previous session with VND889.5 million shares traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VND25.4 trillion (US$1.1 billion).
The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, gained 1.98 per cent to end at 1,506.67 points. Eighteen out of 30 stocks in the VN30 basket posted gains, while seven decreased.
Banking and securities stock performed well and attracted huge cash flow with many gainers such as Military Bank (MBB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB), Techcombank (TCB), SSI Securities Inc (SSI), FPT Securities Joint Stock Company (FTS), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), Viet Capital Incorporation (VCI), SSI Securities Incorporation (SSI), Agribank Securities Corporation (AGR) and APG Securities Joint Stock Company (APG).
Among them, HDBank (HDB) and Tien Phong Bank (TPB) hit the daily limit gain of 7 per cent.
Seventeen out of 25 sector indices on the stock market posted gains, including agriculture, oil and gas, construction, securities, IT, retail, banking, rubber production, construction materials, logistics, food and beverage, real estate, insurance and wholesale.
On the other side, losers were healthcare and seafood production.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index gained 0.68 per cent to end Friday at 445.61 points.
The northern market index had lost 2.32 per cent to end Thursday at 442.61 points.
During the session, investors poured over VND3 trillion into the market, equivalent to a trading volume of 115 million shares.
Foreign investors net sold slightly over VND29 billion on HOSE and net sold more than VND172 billion on HNX.
The net selling concentrated on Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Masan Group (MSN) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) stocks on HOSE. C.E.O Group JSC (CEO) and Saigon-Hanoi Securities Inc (SHS) were net sold the most on the HNX. — VNS