Banking stocks had the most positive impact on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange's (HoSE) VN-Index on Thursday, helping the benchmark gain for the second consecutive session.
Closing the session, the index inched up 0.63 points, or 0.06%, to 1,056.39. However, the major bourse saw up to 222 losers and only 156 gainers, with more than 506 million shares changing hands for over VND8.7 trillion ($371 million).
The VN30 index, which features the 30 largest-cap stocks, increased 1.02 points, or 0.1%, to 1,066.24.
Among the banking tickers, LPB of LienVietPostBank saw a record of over 65 million shares traded for nearly VND1 trillion ($42.65 million) in just half an hour before the session ended.
The stock’s trading volume was equivalent to 3.8% of the bank’s floating shares and its trading value accounted for half of the total on the HoSE on the day.
Other banking codes like VIB of Vietnam International Bank, VPB of VPBank, ACB of Asian Commercial Bank, and STB of Sacombank increased over 1% from the red in the last minutes of the session.
The oil and gas group also caught attention as almost all stocks, except Petrolimex's PLX, gained. Notably, PVD of Petrovietnam Drilling hit its ceiling price with more than 10 million shares matched.
Meanwhile, some groups with positive performance in the first days of the month like securities, steel and real estate showed signs of slowing down.
Foreign investors continued to be net buyers for the 14th consecutive session to the tune of nearly VND340 billion ($14.5 million) on the HoSE. They mainly purchased HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat, PVD, and FUEVFVND certificate.
The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse gained 0.27 points to 211.94, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market was down 0.18 points to 72.19.