HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares advanced for a second session on Friday as mid-cap and small-cap stocks traded in positive territory, especially those in the agriculture sector.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.58 per cent to close at 935.52 points, totalling a two-day increase of 0.85 per cent.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange added 1.07 per cent to end at 105.70 points. It has risen a total of 2.04 per cent in the last two sessions.

The increases of the last two days have helped the VN Index finish the week 0.23 per cent higher than last week, but the HNX Index fell 1.78 per cent on a weekly basis.

More than 224.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ4.27 trillion (US$189.9 million).

Friday’s trading figures were down 6.3 per cent in volume and up 2.2 per cent in value compared to the previous session.

Agriculture stocks lifted the market after the two leading firms Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and its sub-unit HAGL Agrico (HNG) announced the recent dam collapse in Laos would have only limited negative effects on their business.

HAG and HNG hit their daily increasing band of 6.9 per cent each. The two stocks were among speculative shares that have drawn high investment in recent weeks.

HAG notched substantial gains of 45.3 per cent in the last three weeks while HNG has increased by 30.4 per cent in the same period.

The two agriculture stocks lifted the industry index by 6.1 per cent, according to vietstock.vn. Other industries that finished Friday on a positive note included securities firms, real estate companies, banks, retailers and rubber producers.

HAG was the second-most active stock on the market with nearly 14 million shares exchanged. The most active one was property developer FLC Group (FLC), which soared 6.1 per cent with more than 14.8 million shares traded.

The growth of mid-cap and small-cap stocks also had positive impacts on the large-cap group, which comprise the VN30 Index.

The VN30 Index rose 0.64 per cent to 927.19 points with 23 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket advancing.

Among gaining blue chips were Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (PNJ), digital retailer Mobile World (MWG), food company Kido (KDC), MBBank (MBB) and steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG).

Foreign investors remained net buyers on Friday, posting VNĐ30.7 billion worth of net purchase. They net-bought VNĐ51.2 billion worth of stocks on Thursday.

“Continuing the recovery momentum that was rekindled from the previous session, the market saw a steady rise,” Việt Dragon Securities JSC (VDSC) wrote in its daily report.

According to VDSC, the market will expand its recovery to maintain its short-term uptrend. “The selling pressure was somewhat reduced” partly due to the temporary stop in foreign net selling, it said.

“The market may continue growing slightly in coming sessions and stocks’ prices will also differentiate based on the second quarter business results.” — VNS