The stock market finished higher on Thursday, boosted by bargain-hunting force after a two-day correction.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the trading day at 1,050.53 points, an increase of 9.51 points, or 0.91 per cent.

The market’s breadth returned to positive territory with more stocks recovering. Specifically, 257 ticker symbols on HoSE added points, while 86 dropped lower.

Liquidity also improved, with trading value on the southern bourse rising 10.4 per cent over the previous session to VND15.45 trillion (US$649.1 million), equal to a trading volume of nearly 917 million shares.

The index’s reversal was mainly driven by gains in some large-cap stocks as recent sharp falls stimulated some investors to increase stock proportions in their portfolios.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE also rose higher, up 15.15 points, or 1.45 per cent, to 1,062.73 points.

In the VN30 basket, 20 stocks advanced, of which three registered the maximum intra-day gain of 7 per cent. Meanwhile, nine stocks declined with one hitting the floor price and one ending flat.

Statistics from a finance website vietstock.vn showed that Techcombank (TCB) recorded the best performance on Thursday and led the bullish trend. The bank’s shares soared 7 per cent.

Other pillar stocks supporting the uptrend were VPBank (VPB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), MBBank (MBB) and Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR). These stocks all rose at least 3.56 per cent.

Securities stocks like SSI Securities Corporation (SSI), Becamex (BCM) of the realty industry and Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) of the retail sector also saw big increases, lifting the sentiment.

Capping the recovery, persistent sell-off pressure still weighed on some blue-chip stocks, led by Vietcombank (VCB) with a drop of more than 1.9 per cent. It was followed by Vinamilk (VNM), Masan Group (MSN), Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE), down in a range of 1.8-4 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rebounded, up 5.44 points, or 2.59 per cent, to end at 215.37 points.

During the trading session, nearly VND1.5 trillion worth of shares, equal to nearly 107 million shares, was traded on the northern market.

The market continued to receive support from foreign investors as they kept net buying on both main exchanges. Specifically, they net bought VND577.46 billion on HoSE, and VND36.09 billion on HNX. — VNS