HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s benchmark VN Index rallied for a seventh session on Friday, driven by leading stocks in real estate, food and beverage, insurance-finance and construction sectors.

The benchmark index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.56 per cent to touch its 10-year high of 801.20 points.

The southern market index has risen for the last seven consecutive sessions, posting total growth of 3.5 per cent. The rally also helped it finish this week 1.6 per cent higher than the previous one.

More than 132.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.1 trillion (US$137.7 million), down 14 per cent in both volume and value from Thursday’s figures.

The gain of the benchmark stock index was attributed to the good performances of leading stocks in real estate, food and beverage, insurance-finance and construction sectors.

Gaining stocks included food-beverage producer Masan Group (MSN), brewer Sabeco (SAB), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), property developer Vingroup (VIC), steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG), FLC Faros Construction (ROS) and insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

According to statistics of the brokerage VNĐirect Securities Company, MSN, SAB and GAS were the three large-cap stocks that made the biggest contribution to the market’s gain on Friday.

MSN surged 6.4 per cent, SAB jumped 3.9 per cent and GAS increased by 1.4 per cent. Among the three stocks, MSN has posted a sharp increase of nearly 17.7 per cent since August 29.

Despite positive gains of those large-cap stocks, brokerage firms had a negative outlook on current market trading conditions as gaining stocks in the VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest companies, were outnumbered by losing ones.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), the market condition was quite fragile as most investors looked for opportunities in a few blue chips as safe assets while trying to take profits from others.

Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Company (SHS) said in its daily report that decreasing market liquidity showed investors were still cautious and the imbalance of the large-cap index will make it more difficult for the market to go up in coming sessions.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index fell 0.66 per cent to end at 103.92 points, retreating from a three-day increase of 0.8 per cent. The northern market index inched up 0.1 per cent from the previous trading week’s closing level.

More than 41.8 million shares were exchanged on the northern market, worth VNĐ524 billion. — VNS