A PetroVietnam Gas worker operating equipment. The company shares gained 0.4 per cent Tuesday. — Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI —Shares finished higher on Wednesday thanks to the rise of large-caps in the banking and mining groups, bolstered by increased buying demand at the end of the trading session.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.59 per cent to close at 1,512.30 points.

The index had lost 0.49 per cent to close Tuesday at 1,503.47 points. 

The market's breadth turned positive with 111 stocks declining, while 326 rose.

More than 695 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ22.4 trillion (US$981.4 million).

The 30 biggest stocks tracking VN30-Index gained 0.42 per cent to 1,538.83 points. Twenty-one in the VN30 basket increased, while seven declined.

Real estate and construction stocks rebounded after dramatic drop in prices on Tuesday as a series of large-cap stocks recovered such as Tasco Joint Stock Company (HUT), LDG Investment JSC (LDG), both hitting ceiling prices. Licogi 14 JSC (L14), Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), C.E.O Group JSC (CEO), Đất Xanh Group JSC (DXG), Hồ Chí Minh City Infrastructure Investment JSC (CII) and DRH Holdings JSC (DRH) all increased by more than 3 per cent.

Banking stocks also gained strongly and supported the indices, with gainers including Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Military Bank (MBB).

Energy stocks also attracted cash flow with many gainers such as Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PVPower (POW), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ107.96 billion on HOSE, including Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) with VNĐ63.26 trillion, Novaland (NVL) with VNĐ36.05 billion and FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company (FRT) with VNĐ31.92 trillion). Foreign investors were net buyers on HNX with a value of VNĐ120.68 billion.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) increased 1.87 per cent, to 442.54 points. The index had lost 1.49 per cent, to close Tuesday at 434.43 points.

During the trading session, investors poured VNĐ3.2 trillion into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 109 million shares. — VNS