Vincom Plaza Thái Nguyên, under the operation of Vincom Retail (VRE), is located on Lương Ngọc Quyến Street in the northern province of Thái Nguyên. VRE gained 1.6 per cent Thursday. — Photo courtesy of Vingroup

HÀ NỘI — Shares narrowed gains towards the end of the trading session on Thursday but still managed to post slight gains, witnessing a large divergence among large-caps.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.15 per cent to end the session at 1,352.76 points.

The index had closed Wednesday trade at 1,350.68 points, up 0.81 per cent.

Some 997.6 million shares worth nearly VNĐ23.3 trillion (US$1 billion) were traded on the southern exchange.

The afternoon session witnessed a wide divergence among large-caps’ prices.

The blue-chip share tracker VN30-Index climbed 0.34 per cent to 1,458.23 points.

Fourteen of the 30 largest stocks by market valuation and trading liquidity increased while 13 decreased. Three stayed unchanged.

Stocks in the “Vin” family gained and supported the overall market, with notable gainers of Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

A series of residential real estate stocks suddenly dropped in the afternoon and pressured the indices, including Novaland (NVL), Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR), Hà Đô Group JSC (HDG), Investment and Construction Development Joint Stock Corporation (DIG), Hudland Real Estate Investment and Development JSC (HLD) and Phục Hưng Holdings JSC.

Many other blue-chips also sufffered selling pressure such as insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Vibank (VIB), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM) and Techcombank (TCB).

“The market maintained the tug-of-war trend around 1,350 points in today's session. Market breadth turned negative with liquidity rebounding, showing short-term profit-taking pressure at the psychological 1,350 points,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Foreign investors were net sellers on both HoSE and HNX. With the above trend, the market is likely to still accumulate around 1,350 points until the investment cash flow differentiates to welcome the third quarter business results,” it said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ374.0 billion on HOSE, including Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with VNĐ89.8 billion, Kinh Bắc City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC) with VNĐ69.0 billion, and Đức Giang Chemicals Group (DGC) with VNĐ59.1 billion. They were net sellers on HNX with the value of VNĐ34.07 billion.

On a sector basis, the Vietnamese stock market was driven by the real estate, securities, healthcare and retail sectors.

Their sector indices rose between 0.05 per cent and 3.91 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the other side, losers included insurance, technology, logistics, rubber production, food and beverage, wholesale, food and beverage, construction materials and banking sectors.

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ881.19 billion on the HOSE, including Vingroup (VIC) (VNĐ937.96 billion), Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ36.43 billion) and Masan Group (MSN) (VNĐ6.73 billion).

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.66 per cent, to 361.02 points.

During the session, some 199 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth nearly VNĐ3.4 trillion. VNS