Investors watch market movements at MB Securuties's trading floor in Hà Nội. — VNS Photo Trương Vị

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares advanced on strong investor interest in large-cap stocks but declining liquidity signaled further volatility during the last week of the year.

The benchmark VN Index gained 0.63 per cent to close at 958.31 points. The southern market index rose total 1.83 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange inched up 0.18 per cent to end at 113.23 points following weekly growth of 1.28 per cent.

More than 215.4 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ5.14 trillion (US$228.4 million), down 11 per cent in volume and 3.6 per cent in value compared to last week’s average daily trading figures.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation and has a big impact on market movement, was up 0.36 per cent to 949.28 points.

The large-cap group indicator was driven by strong growth of brewer Sabeco (SAB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), property developer Vingroup (VIC), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), petrol dealer Petrolimex (PLX) and Vietcombank (VCB).

BVH, SAB and VIC were the three blue chips that achieved the highest growth rates, which were 6.2 per cent, 5.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent.

The strong increase of Vingroup shares also pulled Coteccons Construction Corporation (CTD) – Vingroup’s key building contractor for its real estate projects – up 2.2 per cent.

Other gainers in the VN30 Index included PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), FLC Faros Construction Corp (ROS) and IT conglomerate FPT Corp (FPT).

According to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Company (SHS), large-cap stocks were still the most important factor driving the VN Index up, however, there may not be a strong increase for Việt Nam’s benchmark index in the next session.

SHS said in its daily report that there was strong divergence among large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket, proved by the fact that losing stocks dominated the blue-chip index while investors continued to withdraw from Mid-cap and Small-cap indices, making stocks in the two groups suffer.

“Declining liquidity with just over 215.4 million shares being traded also showed investors’ tendency to sell more, stand by and stay quiet during the year-end period,” SHS noted.

Foreign investors had a quiet trading day, posting a net sell value of more than VNĐ75 billion on the two local exchanges. They recorded a net buy value of VNĐ226.7 billion on Friday.

The Hà Nội-based brokerage firm forecast that the VN Index on Tuesday may increase slightly to the resistance range of 960-963 points. — VNS