Vietnamese shares advanced on Friday, driven by strong investors’ purchases for stocks that had fallen in the previous four sessions.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 1.12 per cent to close at 968.90 points.

It had declined by a total of 4 per cent since last Friday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 1.11 per cent to end at 111.70 points.

The northern market index was almost flat on Thursday.

The VN Index finished the week 2.08 per cent lower than last while the HNX Index fell nearly 1 per cent.

More than 213.3 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND4 trillion (US$178.8 million).

Large-cap VN30 Index soared 1.45 per cent to stand at 945.59 points at the end of the session with 26 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation making gains.

Among gainers were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), Vincom Retail (VRE), Vietcombank (VCB), steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), Vietinbank (CTG) and Sacombank (STB).

Financial-banking stocks were also the best-performing sectors on Friday as banking, insurance and brokerage sector indices gained between 1.7 per cent and 2.6 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Other sectors also advanced included rubber and plastic production, food and beverages, retail and building materials.

Foreign investors were net buyers on Friday which supported the overall market sentiment.

Foreign net buy value reached VND156.7 billion in comparison to foreign investors’ net sell value of VND57.6 billion made on Thursday.

According to securities firms, the previous four-session decline of the stock market had sent shares back to their attractive price levels, triggering investors’ bargain hunting as they were looking for opportunities in local stocks.

Among blue chips, Vinamilk shares (VNM) had fallen total 22 per cent in the previous two days, Vietcombank (VCB) had dropped 5.5 per cent and Vincom Retail (VRE) had lost 8.5 per cent in four sessions.

It was the strengthened buying demand and positive sentiment in the afternoon that helped boost large-cap stocks to higher price levels, Viet Dragon Securities JSC (VDSC) said in its daily report.

“The recovery today opened up an opportunity that the VN Index can have a short-term rebound in the next session,” BaoViet Securities JSC (BVSC) said.

But BVSC warned the benchmark index may have cumulative moves and struggle to stay on its uptrend. — VNS