Investors look at a digital board displaying stocks' movements. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Shares extended rallies on Wednesday as investors' risk appetite got stronger, while foreign investors continued withdrawing from two main exchanges.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) soared 12.45 points, or 1.1 per cent, to close the trading day at 1,144.17 points.

On the southern bourse, 268 stocks inched higher while 62 ticker symbols went down. However, liquidity was lower from the previous session. Of which, the trading value decreased by 14 per cent to over VNĐ14.7 trillion (US$603.2 million).

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also settled higher at 1,144.85 points, a 13.21 points increase, or 1.17 per cent. Up to 27 stocks in the VN30 basket added up while only two dropped and one stayed unchanged.

An analysis team from Saigon - Hanoi Secutities JSC (SHS) said that the short-term movement of the benchmark index remains positive as expected.

"If we can break over the pressure at the 1,130 point area, we expect the VN-Index can move towards the strong resistance level around the 1,150 point-level. Short-term investors should maintain a low proportion of stocks as the index is gradually approaching resistance thresholds and there may continue to be fluctuations and adjustments," said SHS.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also increased 1.65 points, or 0.72 per cent, to 231.64 points. Investors poured more than VNĐ1.1 trillion into the market, equal to a trading volume of over 62.6 million shares.

Banking stocks continued to lead the market's uptrend, with Vietcombank was still the biggest gainer. The lender's shares rose 1.2 per cent on Wednesday after soaring nearly 4 per cent in the previous session.

It was followed by BIDV (BID), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Vietinbank (CTG). All the stocks were up in a range of 1.47-3.1 per cent.

Securities and realty stocks also performed well, such as SHS rose 1.08 per cent, SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) jumped 1.38 per cent, Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) was up 1.15 per cent and Vinhomes (VHM) climbed 0.93 per cent.

Meanwhille, the market continued to witness an outflows from foreign capital as foreign investors net sold on both main exchanges. In particular, they net sold VNĐ206.2 billion on HoSE and VNĐ7.86 billion on HNX. — VNS