HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares completed a week of gains on both local exchanges yesterday as investor confidence was kept positive and market trading liquidity soared on advance-negotiation deals.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged up 0.4 per cent to finish the week at 674.09 points. The southern market index rallied 3.5 per cent over the five sessions of the week.

The HNX Index on the smaller Hà Nội Stock Exchange struggled on profit taking to close almost unchanged at 83.32 points. The northern market index was able to maintain its growth of 1.2 per cent for a fifth trading day.

“High investor confidence during the week supported by positive news from both domestic and international markets helped boost the stock market,” Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co (SHS) wrote in a report.

“The last trading session was a boom and the market gains were bolstered by upward movements of large-cap stocks,” SHS said.

The southern exchange was driven up by dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), property firm Vingroup JSC (VIC) and information technology company FPT Corp (FPT).

VNM rose 2 per cent, GAS advanced 1.2 per cent to rally for a sixth day with a total increase of 8.9 per cent, VIC was up 0.8 per cent to strengthen its upward move of 12.5 per cent in the last seven trading days.

FPT increased by 1.7 per cent to rise a total of 7.5 per cent during the last two and a half trading weeks. The market yesterday saw 22.7 million shares of FPT traded through advance-negotiation deals, worth more than VNĐ1.1 trillion (US$50 million).

On the northern market, major gainers were Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Vicostone JSC (VCS), which gained 0.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively. VCS was also one of the stocks that have been on an upward trend, soaring 37 per cent in the last six weeks.

Truck manufacturer Hoàng Huy Investment Services (HHS) was the most active stock on the market with more than 12.3 million shares being traded. HHS went up 0.9 per cent yesterday.

The last trading day of the week was also a boom with more than 211.4 million shares in trading worth VNĐ5.17 trillion, an increase of 35 per cent in value and 13 per cent in volume.

The mid-point rate yesterday fell VNĐ2 to VNĐ21,942 for one US dollar while foreign investors recorded a net buy value of VNĐ101.67 billion, more than four-fold the foreign net buy value made on Thursday. — VNS