Shares extended gains on the HCM Stock Exchange on Friday, concluding the week with positive results in all five sessions.

The benchmark VN-Index increased 0.22 per cent to close at 1,039.01 points, expanding weekly gains to 4.6 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.73 per cent to end at 119.86 points. The northern market index decreased 1.18 per cent on Thursday.

The market rose throughout the week with the biggest gains on Monday and Tuesday. After that, the index underwent certain fluctuations due to profit-taking pressure during the last three sessions.

A total of 192.1 million shares, worth over VND5.1 trillion (US$224 million), were traded across the two markets.

Overall market condition was also negative with the number of decliners outnumbering gainers (239-211), while another 290 closed unchanged.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company, liquidity fell to below the moderate level in Friday’s session and market breadth was negative.

Investors turned cautious when the index approached the resistance zone around 1,040-1,065. The index was influenced by the fluctuation of large-cap stocks, which resulted in a strong divergence among stock groups, it said.

The stock groups that took turns leading the market were banking, securities, and real estate.

The newly-listed share Techcombank (TCB) on Friday unexpectedly surged up to the ceiling price of VND105,200 per share, and there were over 2 million shares matched.

In addition, another lender VPBank (VPB), continued to show strength, increasing 4.6 per cent Friday to VND51,800 per share. It has made a weekly gain of 5.3 per cent.

Gainers in the securities and real estate sector included Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), Dat Xanh Group JSC (DXG) and Viet Nam Construction And Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (VCG).

Notably, FECON Corporation (FCN) and Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate JSC (SCR) hit the daily limit rise of nearly 7 percent, strongly contributing to the upward trend of the market.

However, wide divergence in major stocks was still clear. Vincom Retail (VRE), Masan Group (MSN), HDBank (HDB) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) tumbled on Friday, slowing down the growth of indices.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) edged up 0.07 per cent to finish at 53.81 points. It had dropped 0.01 per cent on Thursday.

BVSC said in its daily report that after two consecutive weeks of strong rises, the VN-Index is forecast to have a week of challenges next week.

“Key information likely to affect the stock market next week includes the results of the Fed’s meeting, restructuring of two ETF portfolios (June 15th) and information about H1.2018 business outlooks of enterprises,” it said. — VNS