Shares ended this week on a positive note thanks to the prosperity of financial-banking stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 1.32 per cent to end the session at 1,126.91 points. It had inched up 0.08 per cent to close Thursday at 1,112.19 points.

Nearly 530 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND12.4 trillion (US$538.4 million).

Market breadth was positive with 297 gainers and 134 losers.

“After Thursday's consolidating session, VN-Index had a positive movement today. Investment cash flow spread into the market,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Constant liquidity, widening market spread and positive market breadth indicated stable trading activity. Foreign investors continued to be net buyers on both HSX and HNX.

“With the trend of abundant cash flow spreading evenly into all sectors, the VN-Index is likely to return to the range 1,130-1,150 in the next sessions,” it said.

Foreign investors net bought VND432.58 billion on HOSE, including FUEVFVND with VND212.8 billion, dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (VND98.8 billion and Masan Group (MSN) with VND70.6 billion. They were net buyers on the HNX with the value of VND3.97 billion.

Towards the end of the session, the VN-Index's gain was significantly strengthened as banking stocks such as Techcombank (TCB), Military Bank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB) and HDBank (HDB) extended their rises. Among them, Sacombank (STB) increased by 4 per cent to VND18,300 per share, Techcombank (TCB) increased by 3.7 per cent to VND36,300 per share.

Securities stocks also made strong gains such as SSI Securities Inc (SSI) increased 6.1 per cent to VND31,500 per share, VNDirect (VND) rose by 3.3 per cent to VND26,350 per share, Viet Capital Inc (VCI) grew by 2.3 per cent to VND54,200 per share.

A number of other blue-chips also attracted cash flow such as FPT Corporation (FPT), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Sabeco (SAB).

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was up 1.59 per cent to 1,135.50 points.

Twenty-eight of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket increased while one declined.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.07 per cent to end Friday at 223.84 points.

It had edged up 0.03 per cent to end Thursday at 223.68 points.

More than 109.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND2 trillion. — VNS