Shares increased for a second day, led by airlines and banks, but liquidity dropping showed investors’ caution about the market outlook.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index edged up 0.12 per cent to close Friday at 1,051.81 points. Overall, the southern bourse’s market index lost 2.6 per cent this week.

Liquidity decreased with just more than 788 million shares worth nearly VND13 trillion (US$528.5 million) being traded, down around 15 per cent in both volume and value compared to the previous session.

Aviation stocks were under the spotlight in Friday’s trade with shares of Vietnam Airlines (HVN) soaring 6.8 per cent to VND11,750 ($0.48) per share, followed by Vietjet Air (VJC) with a growth of 4.2 per cent to VND115,500 ($4.53) per share. These were two of the top 10 shares lifting the VN-Index most.

The jump in airline stocks, led by HVN, was driven by the information the national flag carrier reopened regular flights to China on December 9 after a nearly three-year disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first phase, Vietnam Airlines will resume three routes to China, namely the HCM City-Guanzhou, Ha Noi-Shanghai and HCM City-Shanghai. As China has been loosening its grip on pandemic control, Viet Nam’s airlines are expected to resume flights to this market.

Other airline service-related stocks also jumped including Taseco Air Service (AST), Cam Ranh International Air Services (CIA) and Southern Airport Services (SAS) grew between 4.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent each.

Besides aviation, banking stocks also performed well. Half of the top 10 shares contributing to the VN-Index were banks, including Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB), Eximbank (EIB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).

On the dark side, Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), No Va Land Investment Group (NVL) and Vinamilk (VNM) were the shares dragging the southern bourse’s index most with decreases of between 1.3 per cent and 7 per cent each.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added 0.76 per cent to close the week at 217 points, after a 2.6 per cent increase on Thursday.

Trading volume increased 15 per cent over the previous session to 122 million shares while the value of trades jumped 25.3 per cent to VND1.83 trillion.

According to Viet Dragon Securities Co, with strong ups and downs in the recent sessions, the market is creating a range of 1,030 – 1,080 points of the VN-Index. It is expected that the market fluctuation for assessing supply and demand in this range will continue in the near future. — VNS