The rallies of banking-finance stocks on Thursday helped the VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), gain 3.22 points, or 0.3%, to 1,078.39.
The major bourse saw 216 gainers and 156 losers, with over 856 million shares changing hands for VND13.8 trillion ($587.6 million), down 12% from the previous session.
The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of 30 largest-cap stocks, rose 1.76 points to 1,068.09, with 16 tickers rising.
The banking group continued to be green, with KLB of Kien Long Bank hitting its ceiling price. Many others saw an increase of at least 4.6% like TPB of TPBank, OCB of Oriental Commercial Bank, BVB of Bao Viet Bank, and NAB of NamABank.
Securities tickers gained very well with SSI of Saigon Securities up 1.3%, VND of VNDirect Securities 4%, VCI of Viet Capital Securities 0.72%, HCM of Ho Chi Minh City Securities 1.11%, FTS of FPT Securities 2.74%, BSI of BIDV Securities 1.98%, and VIX of VIX Securities 4.16%.
Stocks of real estate companies showed positive performance as eight of them hit their ceiling prices, of which TDH of Thu Duc House was in purple for six consecutive sessions. Other gainers included DIG of DIG Corp., NVL of Novaland, LDG of LDG Investment, PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corp, and HQC of Hoang Quan Corp.
Foreign investors continued to be net sellers on the HoSE to the tune of more than VND110 billion ($4.68 million). They mainly net sold VNM of Vinamilk, HAH of Hai An Transport & Stevedoring JSC, GEX of Gelex Group, and CTG of VietinBank.
The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse rose 1.16 points to 223.97, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market expanded 1.46 points to 83.51.