A banker wearing a face shield hands document to a customer at BIDV's trading office. The bank shares surged 4.8 per cent in the last day of the year, boosting the market's uptrend. Photo vietnamfinance.vn

HÀ NỘI — The stock market finished higher on the last trading day of 2021, with the VN-Index inching closer to 1,500 points on the back of pillar stocks. 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) climbed 12.31 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 1,498.28 points. 

The index rose nearly 35.74 per cent in 2021, opening the year at 1,113.77 points and hitting the historical peak at 1,511.68 points in November. 

The market’s breadth was still negative, while liquidity stayed at a high level with nearly VNĐ26.1 trillion (US$1.14 billion) poured into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 875.73 million shares. 

As funds calculate their net asset value (NAV), the market usually witnesses strong fluctuations at the end of the year. However, the market benchmark was still in its rally because the group of large-cap stocks posted positive performance through the session. 

The VN30-Index, tracking 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, climbed by 16.09 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 1,535.71 points. Of which, twenty-two of the VN30 basket recorded big gains, while eight stocks declined. 

Bank stocks led the uptrend in the last trading session of the week and the year. 

Data compiled by vietstock.vn showed that BIDV (BID) was the biggest gainer on Friday, up 4.8 per cent. Other bank stocks supporting the uptrend were Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), Techcombank (TCB) and Sacombank (STB), with VIB even hitting the biggest intraday gain of 7 per cent, while others were up at least 1 per cent. 

Stocks from real estate and manufacturing sectors also posted outstanding performance. These stocks included Novaland (NVL), up 5.45 per cent, Hoà Phát Group (HPG), up 1.53 per cent, Gelex Group (GEX), up nearly 7 per cent and Vinamilk (VNM), up 1.29 per cent. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also finished higher on the last trading day of 2021, up 12.34 points, or 2.67 per cent, to 473.99 points. The index increased 133.35 per cent in 2021. 

During the session, nearly 107.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth over VNĐ2.82 trillion. 

For the whole of 2021, the trading volume on the stock market was more than 2.3 times higher than last year. 

Foreign investors returned to the market, with a total net value of VNĐ129.85 billion on both main exchanges. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ117.37 billion on HoSE, and a value of VNĐ12.48 billion on HNX. VNS