Price charts displayed on personal computers at HCM City Securities Corp (HSC). The benchmark VN-Index struggled on Friday amid profit-taking pressure on several large-cap stocks. — Photo baotintuc.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares increased slightly on Friday as investors locked in profits after large-cap companies had made recent strong gains.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.24 per cent to close at 940.75 points.

The VN-Index has made a two-day increase of a total of 1.6 per cent and a weekly gain of 0.44 per cent.

More than 194 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.09 trillion (US$176 million).

Market breadth was slightly positive with 185 gaining stocks and 161 declining stocks.

The VN30-Index, VNMID-Index and VNSML-Index – classifying stocks by market value and trading liquidity – were up between 0.07 per cent and 0.24 per cent.

The trading indicators pointed out that market sentiment improved and stabilised, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

But large-cap stocks – the main growth drivers of the market – varied on Friday as some leading sectors were hurt by profit-taking.

Among those sectors were banking, brokerage, technology, retail, and mining and energy.

Top companies in those sectors saw their share prices decline on Friday such as Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), VietCapital Securities (VCI), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG) and tech group FPT (FPT).

Those stocks had made strong gains this week after sell-offs last week and they suffered short-term profitability pressure, VNDirect Securities Co (VNDS) said in its daily report.

In addition, investors looked for new chances in items that had not recovered from the sell-off in the mid-cap and small-cap groups, the company said.

Sectors lifting the stock market on Friday included insurance and finance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, plastics and chemicals, seafood processing, and construction.

The VN-Index had climbed to the resistance zone of 945-950 points and there would not be sufficient good news to boost the index above the zone in the short term, VNDS said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.87 per cent to end at 104.92 points.

The northern market index had enjoyed a three-day rally of 4.47 per cent. It ended this week at 2.5 per cent higher than the previous one.

More than 33.5 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ350 billion. — VNS