The market’s benchmark VN-Index extended its rally on Thursday to the highest point since September of last year, buoyed by demand for riskier assets from both domestic and foreign investors.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index increased 11.22 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 1,165.42 points. This marked its fifth winning streak.

Demand forces spread through all industries on the market, with 248 stocks on the southern bourse climbing while 67 finished lower.

Liquidity was almost unchanged from Wednesday's trading. Investors injected more than VND16.6 trillion (US$704.7 million) into HoSE, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 806.7 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, also rose nearly 9.6 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 1,156.11 points.

Twenty-seven stocks in the VN30 basket soared, while two went down and one stayed flat.

PV Gas (GAS) was the market’s leader today, with a gain of 2.9 per cent to VND99,300 a share.

The positive performance is likely thanks to news that the Son My LNG terminal warehouse project, a collaboration work between PV Gas and AES Corporation, was just approved in Binh Thuan Province.

With a total investment of $1.3 billion, the project is the largest LNG terminal warehouse project in Viet Nam at present.

Other big contributors to the market’s rally were Vinhomes (VHM), Vietcombank (VCB), Masan Group (MSN), and VPBank (VPB). All the stocks rose in a range of 0.87-2.89 per cent.

Other popular stocks posting impressive gains were Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) jumped nearly 5 per cent, GELEX Group (GEX) climbed by 4.66 per cent, Novaland (NVL) up 2.4 per cent, VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND) increased by nearly 2 per cent, and SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) up 1.61 per cent.

Analysts at Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the market still has bullish momentum in the short-term, but is likely to face many fluctuations in the current volatile climate.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rebounded from Wednesday’s losses. It increased 1.09 points, or 0.48 per cent, to finish Thursday at 229.97 points.

During the session, more than 103.5 million shares were traded on HNX, worth over VND1.73 trillion.

Foreign investors also returned to the market as they net bought VND216.77 billion on HoSE, but net sold VND12.74 billion on HNX. — VNS