A Vinamilk cattle farm in the southern province of Tây Ninh. Shares in Vinamilk (VNM) gained 7 per cent on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo Lê Đức Hoảnh

 HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese markets posted gains on Friday, spurred by dairy giant Vinamilk and other individual large-cap stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange climbed 0.36 per cent to close at 776.66 points.

The VN-Index had gained a total of 0.92 per cent in the previous two days.

Nearly 262.3 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.9 trillion (US$165.9 million).

The major bourse was pulled down by profit-taking at the beginning of the day. Stocks in the financial-banking and retail industries were to blame for the market's decline in the morning session.

But in the afternoon session, strong cash flow poured into Vinamilk (VNM) helped boost VNM shares and cushion the market from dropping further.

VNM jumped 7 per cent after the company announced it would buy back 17.5 million shares.

“Liquidity returned to the average level compared to the previous sessions, showing that cash flow remained in the market. The VN-Index is likely to continue moving sideways and accumulating in a price range of 750 - 800 points,” said BIDV Securities Co.

Other large-caps that also advanced included VPBank (VPB), up by 3 per cent, steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG), rising 2.3 per cent, and Masan Group (MSN), going up 2.2 per cent.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was up 1.05 per cent to close at 725.05 points.

On a sector basis, gainers included wholesale, real estate, information and technology, agriculture, food and beverage, construction and construction material.

On the other side, decliners included insurance, securities, retail, mining, banking, rubber production and seafood processing.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ345.20 billion on HOSE, including Vinamilk (VNĐ91.19 billion), Century Land JSC (CRE) (VNĐ38.52 billion) and Vietcombank (VCB) (VNĐ37.01 billion). They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ22.67 billion.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange closed up 0.01 per cent to end Friday at 106.97 points.

The northern market index had increased by a total of 2.17 per cent the previous two days.

Nearly 43.9 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ318 billion. — VNS