A customer at a branch of Vietinbank (CTG). CTG rose 3.7 per cent yesterday. Photo vietinbank.vn

 HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares increased yesterday as investors sought stocks that had been hit hard in the previous session.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index gained 0.77 per cent, to 954.53 points.

The benchmark had fallen sharply by 3.89 per cent, to close Thursday at 947.24 points.

Nearly 736.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to VNĐ11 trillion (US$443.3 million).

Market breadth was neutral with 233 losers and 213 gainers.

Banking stocks were darlings of the market with gainers including Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Viet Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB), Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

The 30 biggest stock tracker VN30-Index increased 1.29 per cent, to end at 948.86 points.

In the basket, 22 stocks climbed and four dropped. Six stocks ended flat.

Currently, the downtrend of the market temporarily stopped at the lower level of the trend channel at VN-Index and VN30-Index, and there was a slight recovery, said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

“However, this support movement is not clear as the pressure of "force selling" is still active in many stocks, which will put downward pressure and an oversold state on the market when entering the next trading session.

“If the cash flow can help the market stabilise again and exit the oversold state, the support signal at the lower boundary of the trend channel will be confirmed, thereby helping the market to recover in the short term. Therefore, investors still need to be cautious about the ongoing selling pressure and need to closely observe the movement of the supporting cash flow to assess the market's status.”

On a sector basis, 20 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market gained ground, including insurance, oil and gas, banking, wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, real estate, food and beverage, retail and healthcare.

Losers, meanwhile, included seafood production, construction materials, securities, and plastic and chemical production.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 1.34 per cent to end yesterday at 189.81 points.

The northern market index had lost 4.47 per cent, to close Thursday at 192.39 points.

Some 77.9 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ1 trillion. — VNS