At a Sacombank transaction room. The lender's shares hit a new ceiling on Monday, contributing to the strong growth of VN-Index at the beginning of the week. — Photo courtesy of Sacombank

HÀ NỘI — The market opened the new week on a positive note with many stocks witnessing big gains, while liquidity also soared.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) finished the trading day at 1.280 points, up 18.28 points, or 1.45 per cent.

The market's breadth was positive as the number of gainers surpassed that of losers by 264 to 79. Liquidity on the southern bourse rose by 39.2 per cent to more than VNĐ26 trillion (US$1.09 billion), equivalent to a trading volume of more than one billion shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the HoSE, increased 21.81 points, or 1.71 per cent, to finish at 1,297.78 points. In the VN30 basket, 29 stocks ticked up while one inched down.

Leading the market's uptrend were pillar stocks in the banking industry.

Data compiled by a financial website vietstock.vn showed that the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB) was the biggest gainer on the market with shares up nearly 1.2 per cent, contributing over 2.2 points to the VN-Index gain.

It was followed by the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB), up 3.91 per cent, the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (CTG), up 2.19 per cent and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), up 0.42 per cent. Notably, the Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB) hit a ceiling, up 6.82 per cent, contributing nearly one point to the VN-Index.

Other large-cap stocks that performed well included Vingroup Joint Stock Company (VIC), up 0.92 per cent, FPT Corporation (FPT), up 1.71 per cent, and Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN) which increased 4.68 per cent.

Limiting the rallies, some big stocks still faced slight sell-offs, such as Đức Giang Chemicals Group JSC (DGC) which posted a decline of 0.48 per cent, Vietnam Rubber Group JSC (GVR) down 0.43 per cent and Vietnam Commercial Joint Stock Export Import Bank (EIB) which lost 0.75 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also finished higher on Monday. It rose 0.67 per cent, to 244.72 points.

During the session, more than VNĐ1.8 trillion worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 105 million shares, were moved on the northern market.

On the other hand, foreign investors extended their net selling spree as they net sold over VNĐ245 billion on the HoSE. — VNS