Investors watch the market's movements on a laptop. — Photo bnews.vn

HÀ NỘI — The domestic stock market was little changed on Friday due to profit-taking pressure, after posting the strongest gain in two weeks in the previous session.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market's benchmark VN-Index closed flat at 1,288.1 points in the last trading session of the week, after three failed attempts to break over 1,230 points.

The index had soared nearly 12 points on Thursday on stronger demand.

The breadth of the pre-weekend market was negative, as the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers on the southern bourse. Liquidity also remained low with a trading value of nearly VNĐ12.8 trillion (US$501.7 million).

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in term of market capitalisation on HoSE, was also stable, closing the week at 1,286.07 points. Thirteen ticker symbols ticked up, while 11 fell and six stayed unchanged.

The real estate stock group showed signs of pessimism, with many pillar stocks experiencing deep declines during the afternoon session.

Vinhomes (VHM) stocks continued to face strong selling pressure, ending the day down by over 3.9 per cent to a session low of VNĐ41,600 per share, erasing over 1.7 points from the overall index.

Within the industry, Đất Xanh Group (DXG) was down by 2.6 per cent and recording the highest market liquidity at 21.13 million units, Novaland (NVL) was down by 2.2 per cent, Hoàng Huy Investment Financial Services JSC (TCH) dropped by 1.6 per cent, Phát Đạt Real Estate Development JSC (PDR) fell 1.4 per cent and DIC Group (DIG) was down by 1.2 per cent.

Other stocks only saw marginal decreases, around the one per cent mark.

In the top gainers list, PV GAS (GAS) maintained its upward trajectory, up 1.5 per cent, other stocks like Techcombank (TCB) and Hòa Phát Group (HPG) also rose by over 1 per cent, while the rest fluctuated around gains of 0.5 per cent.

Among mid and small-cap stocks, Hoàng Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG) lost steam in the afternoon session, due to both domestic and foreign selling pressure, ending the day with a slight 0.4 per cent increase, but ranking in the top ten in terms of market liquidity, with over 11 million units traded.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), after some mild fluctuations in the first 30 minutes of the afternoon session, the HNX-Index decreased by 0.47 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 221.29 points due to increased selling pressure.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net buyers on the two main bourses with total net buying of VNĐ35.87 billion. — VNS