A chilled meat processing line at a Masan Group facility in the northern province of Hà Nam. Masan Group (MSN) shares rose 0.72 per cent on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Masan Group

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares edged up yesterday as investors sought out stocks that had been hit hard in the previous session.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) gained 0.04 per cent to end Friday at 970.75 points.

Nearly 167.3 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.7 trillion (US$159.5 million).

Market breadth was positive on Friday with 170 shares gaining and 139 declining.

The southern market index had lost 0.80 per cent to end Thursday at 970.39 points.

The large-cap VN30-Index increased by 0.20 per cent to stand at 887.47 points.

On a sector basis, eight of the 25 sectors saw share prices dropping, including retail, banking, food and beverage, rubber production and seafood processing.

On the opposite side, 17 of the 25 sectors saw share prices rising, including oil and gas, insurance, information and technology, logistics, construction material, real estate, banking, wholesale, plastic and chemicals.

Many large-caps gained such as Masan Group (MSN), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), FPT Corporation (FPT), Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ), Vinhomes (VHM), Vincom Retail (VRE), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MBB) and VPBank (VPB).

On the opposite direction, PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Vinamilk (VNM), brewery Sabeco (SAB), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Power Corporation (POW) and Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) were losers.

Regional markets moved in reverse to the local market. Asian stocks plunged on Friday, harmed by cautious sentiment among investors who fear new US laws supporting Hong Kong protesters could hurt efforts to end the US-China trade war.

According to Reuters, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down more than 1 per cent. Hong Kong plunged 2 per cent, South Korean shares lost 1.4 per cent and Japan's Nikkei decreased 0.5 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index was up 0.16 per cent to end Friday at 102.50 points.

More than 22.9 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ266 billion.

The northern market index had fallen 0.86 per cent to end Thursday at 102.34 points.

On Friday, foreign investors net bought VNĐ68.26 billion on the HOSE, including Vincom Retail (VRE) (VNĐ53.97 billion), FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company (ROS) (VNĐ34.11 billion) and Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (VNĐ30.44 billion). They net sold VNĐ6.69 billion on the HNX. — VNS