Customers at a Vietcombank branch in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Hải

HÀ NỘI — The VN-Index finally broke the 1,000-point threshold on Wednesday after two days of failure, mainly thanks to strong support from banking stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange increased 0.50 per cent to end Wednesday at 1,000.89 points.

More than 181.1 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.7 trillion (US$158 million).

The index slid 0.06 per cent to end Tuesday at 995.87 points.

The darlings of the VN-Index on Wednesday were Vingroup (VIC) (+1.5 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (+1.6 per cent), Vinhomes (VHM) (+ 1.4 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (+ 1 per cent), Vincom Retail (VRE) (+2 per cent), Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (+ 1.7 per cent), Vietjet (VJC) (+ 0.9 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (+ 0.4 per cent) and Vietinbank (CTG) (+0.5 per cent).

In the opposite direction, some pillars sank such as Vinamilk (VNM) (-1.6 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) (-1 per cent), Mobile World Group (MWG) (-1.7 per cent), Hoà Phát Group (HPG) (-0.9 per cent), and VPBank (VPB) (-0.5 per cent).

On a sector basis, securities, banking, insurance, seafood production, wholesale, construction and oil and gas moved up.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC), the market is forecast to fall under the influence of the Fed policy meeting, the results of which are expected to be released early tomorrow.

However, the VN-Index is improving and will possibly break the strong resistance zone 1,000-1,004 points and head toward stronger resistance zones.

“We expect a 70 per cent chance that the Fed will cut the interest rate at this meeting, supporting the market in the short term,” BVSC said.

However, the market also remains under the influence of third quarter portfolio reviews of funds benchmarking the VN30 in the remaining sessions of the week, BVSC said.

Stock exposure can be raised to 40-45 per cent of a portfolio. Investors may consider buying part of previously sold positions if the index falls to support the 990-996 points zone.

If the market can break the resistance zone of 1,000-1,004 points, investors may consider raising stock exposure, the company said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 1.15 per cent to close at 105.89 points.

The northern index lost 0.16 per cent to close at 104.87 points on Tuesday.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ46.25 billion on HOSE, including Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ57.9 billion) and Vietjet (VJC) (VNĐ28.9 billion). They were net buyers on the HNX with value of VNĐ5.19 billion. — VNS