Investors follow stock moves at SSI Securities Inc's trading office in Hà Nội. — VNS Photo Trương Vị

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares advanced slightly on Thursday amid lower trading liquidity as investors were drawn to companies with new information.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.41 per cent to close at 985.95 points.

The VN-Index dropped total 1.57 per cent in the previous two trading days.

The benchmark index was driven by companies releasing new business information.

Vinacafe Biên Hòa JSC (VCF) rose 2.8 per cent as the company planned to pay a 240 per cent cash dividend for its 2018 performance, meaning each shareholder would receive a bonus of VNĐ24,000 (US$1.03) per share.

VCF has more than 26.5 million shares on HoSE, and the dividend payment is valued at VNĐ638 billion ($27.4 million).

In 2018, the company earned VNĐ3.45 trillion in revenue and VNĐ637 billion in post-tax profit, up 3.4 per cent and 72.5 per cent year-on-year.

GTN Foods shares (GTN) surged 6.9 per cent – the same pace in the morning session – as dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) had reportedly gained approval from the State Securities Commission to buy 46.68 per cent stake in GTN to increase ownership to 49 per cent.

But VNM narrowed its growth to 0.2 per cent at the end of the afternoon session from 0.6 per cent in the morning.

Vietjet shares (VJC) rose 0.4 per cent, expanding its uptrend to 2.2 per cent across two trading days, after the company announced its post-audit revenue and profit of VNĐ53.58 trillion and VNĐ5.81 trillion.

The figures increased sharply from 2017 numbers of VNĐ42.3 trillion and VNĐ5.07 trillion.

Two of the top 10 most valuable firms – real estate firms Vingroup (VIC) and Vinhomes (VHM) – added 2.9 per cent and 1.1 per cent.

VJC, VNM, VIC and VHM were among 13 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30-Index that advanced.

The large-cap VN30-Index was up 0.32 per cent to end Thursday at 896.04 points.

But Thursday was only a technical recovery as trading liquidity continued falling, according to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

Nearly 129.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ2.6 trillion. The figures dropped 19 per cent in volume and 26 per cent in value from Wednesday.

On the derivatives market, the four VN30-based futures finished 12.94-20.34 points lower than the underlying VN30-Index.

That indicated investor concerns that the market would still be on a short-term downtrend, SHS said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched up 0.13 per cent to end at 107.57 points.

The northern market lost total 1.37 per cent over the previous two days.

More than 22.3 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ304 billion. — VNS