HÀ NỘI – Shares maintained slight growth on Friday but the recurrence of profit-taking pressure in the afternoon trade over the past three sessions continued to pose a risk to the market’s uptrend.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange closed Friday up 0.34 per cent at 991.34 points. The southern market index gained 2.3 per cent for this week.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.63 per cent to end at 113.37 points and expanded this week’s rally to 1.5 per cent.

Banking stocks, which fueled the market momentum this week, diverged on Friday. While Vietcombank (VCB) and Vietinbank (CTG) maintained growth, Military Bank (MBB) and BIDV (BID) declined.

Oil and gas stocks recovered on Friday, except PV Gas (GAS), which fell back to the reference price in the afternoon under high selling pressure. Other big companies such as Petrolimex (PLX), PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Service (PVS) and PetroVietnam Coating (PVB) all gained value.

PVB rose 7.4 per cent while others increased by over 1 per cent.

On the other end of spectrum, some stocks in the VN30 basket, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, slumped and dragged down the market.

Losers included Masan Group (MSN), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), steelmakers Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and DHG Pharmaceuticals (DHG).

“The market slowed down as the indexes are approaching the resistance level. The current demand is relatively weak and heavily dependent on foreign investors,” said Khải Trần, a stock analyst at Viet Dragon Securities Co.

However, foreign trades were very volatile. They were net buyers in the first three sessions this week but turned to net selling on Thursday. They returned to net buying on Friday for total VNĐ169 billion (US$7.3 million) on the two exchanges.

Their buys focused on blue chips such as Vinamilk, Vietcombank, confectionery Kido Group and PetroVietnam Technical Service.

According to analysts on vietstock.vn, high selling pressure on large-cap stocks when the VN-Index moved around the resistance of 990 points raised concerns about the possibility of price manipulation.

The decrease in foreign trade also contributed to the weakening cash flow as domestic purchasing power almost reached the saturation point of around VNĐ4 trillion, they said.

A total of 224.4 million shares worth a combined VNĐ5.1 trillion ($219 million) were traded in the two markets yesterday. – VNS