Techcombank headquarters in Hà Nội City. The lender's shares led the entire market on Friday. — Photo courtesy of Techcombank.

HÀ NỘI — The market closed the Friday’s session on a positive note with many stocks witnessing big gains, while liquidity decreased significantly.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) finished at 1,287.58 points, up 4.02 points, or 0.31 per cent.

Throughout most of the day, the VN-Index traded above the reference level, maintaining a relatively stable range and closing the session higher.

The market's breadth was positive as the number of gainers surpassed that of losers by 180 to 128. Liquidity on the southern bourse declined by 19.7 per cent down to VNĐ17.8 trillion (US$698 million), equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 700 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the HoSE, increased 5.75 points, or 0.44 per cent, to finish at 1,308.03 points. In the VN30 basket, 13 stocks ticked up while 12 inched down and five ended flat.

Data compiled by financial website vietstock.vn showed that Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TCB) was the biggest gainer on the market with shares up nearly 2.3 per cent, contributing nearly one point to the VN-Index gain.

It was followed by Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), up 3.66 per cent, FPT Corporation (FPT), up 1.72 per cent and Việt Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (VNM), up 0.89 per cent.

Aviation stocks also performed well on Friday. Shares of Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN) rose 3.94 per cent, while Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (VJC) rose 0.37 per cent.

Some sectors posted losses and put strong pressure on the overall market. Banking stocks dropped, with losers being Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB), decreased 0.56 per cent; Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), down 0.31 per cent ; and the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPB), down 0.55 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index ended higher at 244.99 points, up 0.33 per cent. During the session, over 77 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ1.4 trillion.

Foreign investors continued to net sell VNĐ475.8 billion on HoSE, quite slightly compared to VNĐ781 billion yesterday. A series of stocks that were strongly withdrawn were Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Gemadept Corporation (GMD).— VNS