Shares of the Vietnam Construction and Import-Export JSC (Vinaconex) soared on Friday morning, pushing the HNX Index above its reference line.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange inched up 0.20 per cent to close Friday morning at 104.77 points.

The northern exchange index gained 0.63 per cent on Thursday.

Vinaconex shares, listed as VCG on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, surged 9.7 per cent to VND20,300 (US$0.90) per share on Thursday morning.

The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and the military telecommunication group Viettel on Thursday sold their entire 348.9 million shares in Vinaconex, receiving a total of VND9.37 trillion ($416.4 million).

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the benchmark VN-Index dropped 0.13 per cent to end at 923.24 points.

The southern market index rose 0.20 per cent on Thursday.

Large-cap stocks on the southern bourse underperformed and pulled the benchmark index down.

The blue-chip VN30 Index was down 0.29 per cent to 896.30 points with two-thirds of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket heading down.

Among decliners in the large-cap basket were FLC Faros Construction (ROS), steel producer Hoa Sen (HSG), VPBank (VPB), DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG) and logistics firm Gemadept (GMD).

More than 87 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND1.84 trillion (US$81.8 million).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS