At a Petrolimex gas station. Petrolimex (PLX) stocks hit a new ceiling on Thursday. — Photo courtesy of Petrolimex

HÀ NỘI — Shares rallied on Thursday as the recovery of large-cap stocks helped the VN-Index regain 14.12 points, while oil and gas stocks rose sharply.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) finished the trading day at 1.281,03 points, up 14.12 points, or 1.11 per cent.

More stocks were traded higher on the southern bourse as 219 ticker symbols increased while 108 decreased, but liquidity declined from the previous session. The trading value fell 16.7 per cent to VNĐ23.3 trillion (US$972 million), equal to a trading volume of more than 968 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the HoSE, increased 13.3 points, or 1.03 per cent, to finish at 1,304.76 points. In the VN30 basket, 27 stocks ticked up while three inched down.

Oil and gas stocks led the VN-Index on Thursday, with PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (GAS) up 4.31 per cent and Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) up 6.9 per cent. GAS is a large-cap stock, ranked third in the market but PLX capitalisation is quite small and it is not yet in the Top 25. However, PLX's dramatic increase also contributed nearly 0.86 points, while GAS contributed nearly two points to the VN-index score.

The group of oil and gas stocks that performed well, included PV Oil LUBE JSC (PVO), up 13.56 per cent; Bình Sơn Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR), up 6.64 per cent; PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (OIL), up 5.77 per cent; and PetroVietNam Chemical and Services Joint Stock Corporation (PVC), up 1.2 per cent.

Liquidity in oil and gas stocks was not high, but many stocks hit their own multi-month price high. However, oil and gas stocks other than GAS and PLX had no impact on the overall market on Thursday.

Limiting the rallies, some big stocks still faced strong sell-offs, such as FPT Corporation (FPT) which posted a decline of 0.36 per cent, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) down 0.6 per cent and VNDIRECT Securities Corporation (VND) which lost 3.29 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the index also finished higher on Thursday. It rose 0.72 per cent, to 246.91 points, the sixteenth consecutive positive trading session.

During the session, more than VNĐ2.2 trillion worth of shares were traded, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 105 million shares on the northern market.

Foreign investors also made a strong impression by actively buying in the afternoon. In the morning session, they sold a net of nearly VNĐ504.9 billion, but in the afternoon, bought a net of VNĐ571.3 billion. Overall, the session saw a net foreign purchase of VNĐ66.5 billion. — VNS