Inside a warehouse of Hòa Phát Group. The steel producer's shares surged nearly 6 per cent on Friday, leading the market's rally. Photo hoaphat.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares finished higher on Friday and marked a weekly gain, thanks to bargain-hunting demand from investors after recent losses to nearly 900 points. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index steadied in the last trading session of the week after losing 24.7 points, or 2.55 per cent, in the morning trade due to strong selling pressure. 

It finished the day at 969.33 points, an increase of 0.07 points, or 0.01 per cent. 

The market's breadth was positive with 233 stocks adding points on the southern bourse, while 104 stocks inched lower. 

Liquidity also slightly improved, of which matching value on HoSE rose more than 1 per cent to nearly VNĐ11.52 trillion (US$464.3 million), equal to a matching volume of 834 million shares. 

The big correction in the morning session triggered bottom-fishing demand, helping the index to pare the downtrend and rebound in the afternoon trade. It also received support from the VN30 stocks. Accordingly, the 30 biggest stocks tracker on HoSE gained 0.16 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 971.2 points. 

Statistics from the financial website vietstock.vn showed that Hòa Phát Group (HPG) contributed the most to the bullish trend, up nearly 6 per cent. 

It was followed by Vingroup (VIC), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Vinamilk (VNM) and Eximbank (EIB). These stocks were up at least 1.5 per cent, with EIB and GVR even hitting the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent. 

Gains were capped by lingering selling force in some pillar stocks. Of which PV Gas (GAS) was the biggest loser, down 4.51 per cent. The negative performance is likely due to sharp falls in international oil prices as markets worry that the US interest rate policy and rising COVID cases in China might weaken fuel demand. 

Many other sticker symbols posted great losses yesterday, such as Novaland (NVL), Becamex (BCM), Sabeco (SAB), Masan Group (MSN), Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB), and Vincom Retail (VRE). All fell in a range of 1.1-7 per cent. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also finished the week higher, up 3.01 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 190.87 points. 

During the session, more than 108.1 million shares were traded on HNX, worth over VNĐ1 trillion. 

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net buyers on the market with a value of VNĐ10.81 billion. Of which, they net sold VNĐ25.09 billion on HoSE, while net bought VNĐ35.9 billion. VNS