HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange recounded Thursday, but slowed at the end of the session as investors increased selling to make profits.

The index inched up 0.13 per cent to close at 804.82 points, narrowing its gain from the intraday high of 810.35 points. The benchmark index bounced back from a three-session loss of 0.4 per cent.

More than 192.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.86 trillion (US$171.7 million), up 22.4 per cent in volume and 14 per cent in value compared to Wednesday.

The improvement of the major stock market was attributed to strong gains of Sacombank (STB), brewers Sabeco (SAB) and Habeco (BHN), and energy stocks.

STB gained 2.9 per cent after the HCM City-based bank announced it had signed a deal with the Vietnam Asset Management Company to offload VNĐ1 trillion worth of bad debts in 2017.

Sacombank shares have gained as much as 9.1 per cent since the beginning of this trading week after its chairman registered to purchase 18 million shares on the stock market.

Brewers SAB and BHN also performed well. SAB jumped 4.4 per cent and BHN hit its daily trading limit of 7 per cent. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance’s Corporate Finance Agency proposed the State’s capital in the two beverage producers be handed over from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the State Capital Investment Corporation by September 30.

In the energy sector, PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) saw its share prices edged up 0.7 per cent after crude prices bounced back in the Asia trading session. Brent crude gained 0.7 per cent to trade at $58.32 a barrel, recovering from a two-day decline of 1.9 per cent.

According to Bảo Việt Securities (BVSC), the VN-Index was mainly boosted by some large-cap stocks while the general trading condition remained negative with rising investor selling and weak market demand.

Investors were mostly cautious with the current trading conditions and worried about the domination of the large-cap stocks over the market’s gain, which could lead to a market slump if those blue chips fail to make further gains, BVSC said in its report.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.08 per cent to end at 107.43 points. More than 63.4 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ803 billion. — VNS