A customer picking Vinamilk products at a super market. The dairy company led the bullish trend yesterday with a gain of nearly 6.2 per cent. Photo vinamilk.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The stock market ended mixed on Thursday, with the VN-Index recovering from the previous loss on large-cap stocks. However as investors remained cautious, both benchmark indices fluctuated in a tight range. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index rose by 1.64 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 1,492.15 points. The index lost 7.25 points, or 0.48 per cent, on Wednesday. 

The market, however, was negative with 179 stocks increasing, while 261 declined. Liquidity was also lower than the previous session, of which more than VNĐ21.8 trillion (US$954.8 million) was poured into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of over 684.5 million shares. 

The index's recovery was thanks to gains in pillar stocks, especially in the manufacturing sector. Accordingly, the VN30-Index inched up 8.3 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 1,508.53 points. 

Nineteen of the 30 biggest stocks in capitalisation on HoSE posted gains yesterday, while only nine slid and two ended flat. 

Data compiled by vietstock.vn showed that Vinamilk (VNM) was the biggest gainer yesterday, leading the bullish trend with an increase of 6.17 per cent. 

Stocks in realty and banking sectors also contributed to the uptrend. These stocks included Vincom Retail (VRE), Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB), Becamex (BCM) and Techcombank (TCB), up in a range of 0.81-2.92 per cent. 

The benchmark also received support from Viglacera Corporation (VGC) as the company's shares hit the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent. 

However, gains were capped by lingering selling pressure in some other big stocks with PV Gas (GAS) losing the most, down 1.63 per cent. It was followed by Masan Group (MSN), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Development Investment Group JSC (DIG) and Sacombank (STB).

Meanwhile, FLC Group (FLC) hit the floor price for the fourth consecutive session. 

On the other hand, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) decreased by 1.57 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 449.62 points. 

During the session, nearly 121 million stocks were traded on HNX, worth over VNĐ3.3 trillion. 

Foreign investors flocked into the market after net buying a total value of VNĐ333.49 billion on both main exchanges. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ337.94 billion on HoSE, while net sold a value of VNĐ4.45 billion on the northern bourse. VNS