Vietnamese shares ended up on Friday, driven by Vietcombank and consumer goods producer Masan Group after those two firms announced plans that would benefit shareholders. Investors follow market moves at An Binh Securities Co. Vietcombank and consumer goods producer Masan Group lifted the market yesterday. — Photo bizlive.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Vietnamese shares ended up on Friday, driven by Vietcombank and consumer goods producer Masan Group after those two firms announced plans that would benefit shareholders.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rebounded 1.4 per cent from Thursday's decline to finish the week at 667.75 points, up 0.8 per cent from the previous week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Nội Stock Exchange rose another 0.7 per cent to end at 83.93 points, rallying 1.5 per cent in four days. Overall the northern market index increased by 1 per cent over a week.

"The market recorded the strongest growth in the last two weeks thanks to large-cap stocks such as Vietcombank, consumer goods producer Masan Group (Masan) and PetroVietnam Gas Corp (PV Gas)," BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) wrote in its daily report.

"Masan and Vietcombank's stocks were lifted after the two firms announced plans for share buybacks and bonus share issuances late Thursday."

Vietcombank (VCB) surged 6.5 per cent after the bank planned to issue nearly 933 million bonus shares for investors with the rate of 35 per cent or 35 bonus shares for every 100 shares owned by investors.

The issuance of bonus shares could help boost Vietcombank on the stock market in the coming trading days, thus bringing the market upwards as Vietcombank is the second largest stock by market capitalisation, Bao Việt Securities Corp said in a note on Thursday.

Yesterday's sharp rise of VCB increased the bank's market capitalisation to more than VND153.2 trillion (US$6.8 billion).

Masan Group (MSN) said in a statement on Thursday that the largest consumer goods producer would buy back a maximum of 20 million shares for treasury within one month from September. MSN closed up 2.4 per cent yesterday.

"The energy sector was positive during yesterday's session after crude prices recovered on Thursday," Maritime Securities Inc said in a note yesterday. US crude on Thursday gained 1.2 per cent to close trading at US$47.33 a barrel.

Oil stocks, including PV Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Coating JSC (PVB) advanced 2.4 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively.

Foreign investors remained net sellers on "cautiousness ahead of the US central bank's chairwoman on the US rate hike plan," BVSC said in a note.

"Foreign investors have sold a net value of US$90 million since the beginning of August. They previously remained net sellers in the five weeks before the December rate hike."

More than 156.4 million shares were exchanged worth VND2.86 trillion, a decrease of 4.7 per cent from Thursday's trading value. — VNS