Shares on the two national stock exchanges moved in opposite directions on Thursday with investors showing interest in small- and mid-cap stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index edged down 0.11 per cent after a three-day rally, closing at 1,057.12 points. Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange extended the uptrend to four days in a row, adding 0.24 per cent to close at 214.41 points.

The decline in pillar stocks such as Vietcombank (VCB), PV Gas (GAS), Vinhomes (VHM), Vinamilk (VNM) and Techcombank (TCB) heavily impacted the market at the end of the session, creating significant pressure.

In the VN30 basket which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, 16 declined while only 10 advanced and four closed flat.

Despite the challenges, buying activities remained dominant, with nearly 460 advancers compared to 310 losers. Notably, demand for small and medium stocks was high on the two bourses.

The finance-banking group had a rough day, but some stocks such as Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), Ho Chi Minh Development Bank (HDB), VNDirect Securiteis (VND), FPT Securities (FTS), Vietinbank Securities (CTS) and Tan Viet Securities (TVS) performed well.

Conversely, the real estate group showed promise with many shares gaining substantially, including Quoc Cuong Gia Lai (QCG), Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate (HQC), Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) and Sonadezi Long Thanh Shareholding Company (SZL) which all hit the ceiling prices (of 7 per cent).

DXG ranked second in terms of liquidity by the end of the session and was strongly bought by foreign traders.

The market liquidity remained good with the trading value reaching VND13.5 trillion (US$572 million), up 4 per cent over the previous session.

“Liquidity increased, showing an effort to absorb the supply of cash flow. In more detail, the exciting movements were concentrated in the group of stocks with low prices, while the large-cap group was still cautious before the resistance area of 1,060 points of the VN-Index,” Phuong Nguyen, an analyst at Viet Dragon Securities Co, wrote in a note.

With a somewhat better situation, it is likely that the market will test the supply at 1,060 – 1,065 points in the near future. Therefore, investors can expect a price increase in some stocks with good technical signals, she said.

Foreign investors were net buyers in the two markets after many net-selling streak, picking up shares worth net value of VND140 billion. — VNS