HÀ NỘI — Shares continued to rise on the HCM Stock Exchange on Thursday, fueled by the growth of several major large caps, while the Hà Nội Stock Exchange closed in the negative zone under high selling pressure.

On the southern bourse, the VN-Index ended up 0.24 per cent to land at 815.87 points, lifting the four-day rally to 1 per cent.

High selling pressure pushed down many large-cap stocks in HCM City as 17 of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity lost value and 12 advanced.

After a strong rally, bank stocks reversed course to decline on Thursday when six of seven listed lenders tumbled, including the Big Four (the four biggest banks by market value and total assets). Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), BIDV (BID) and Military Bank (MBB) dropped by less than 1 per cent.

Only VPBank (VPB) rose by 1.4 per cent.

Also, the two biggest listed steel companies – Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG) – decreased 0.1 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.

Insurance, technology and real estate companies were the main supporter of the market on the day. Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) was the biggest gainer, up 3.5 per cent; FPT Corp (FPT) increased 2.2 per cent; and Masan Group (MSN) was up 3 per cent.

Property firms like VinGroup (VIC), Novaland Investment Group (NVL) and FLC Faros Construction rose by less than 1 per cent.

“In general, cash flow is still likely to look for large-cap stocks and the market is hoped to go higher… However, the current cash flow is very risky as it only focuses on the basic stocks with positive earnings prospect,” analysts at Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities wrote in a note.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, without the backing of large caps, the HNX-Index decreased 0.25 per cent to close at 108.38 points.

The HNX30 which tracks the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity here also dropped 0.37 per cent to 199.23 points.

Thursday’s trading volume decreased 13.3 per cent from the previous session, totaling 198 million shares in the two markets, but the trading value increased 6.8 per cent to reach VNĐ4.7 trillion (US$207 million). — VNS