A worker at Tiền Phong Plastic JSC (HNX: NTP). The company shares gained 1.7 per cent on Thursday. — Photo nhuatienphong.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares’ growth contracted on Thursday as banks extended rallies and lower crude futures benefited oil-consuming companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.46 per cent to close at 861.39 points, slowing its pace from as much as 1.01 per cent during the day.

The minor HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange rose 0.68 per cent to end at 109.64 points.

The two indices respectively fell 1.34 per cent and 1.45 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 363.6 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth nearly VNĐ7.80 trillion (US$335 million).

The figure included VNĐ2.2 trillion of Vinhomes shares (VHM) being traded via put-through deals. Vinhomes shares inched up 0.4 per cent.

Banks and plastic and petrochemical firms were the driving factors of the market.

The banking sector was up 1.6 per cent, lifted by Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), and Sacombank (STB).

The four banks increased by 1.9-3.7 per cent.

Below-reference crude futures helped boost oil-consuming businesses, including plastic and petrochemical producers.

The sector index was up 0.9 per cent on Thursday.

Gainers in the plastic-petrochemical sector included Tiền Phong Plastic (NTP), PetroVietnam Cà Mau Fertiliser JSC (DCM), and Đức Giang Chemicals (DGC).

On the negative side, energy stocks declined such as PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS), and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

The market had a slight gain on Thursday as large-cap stocks varied in different sectors, Thành Công Securities (TCSC) said in its daily report.

Negative breadth with 242 gainers against 270 decliners on both exchanges proved selling persisted and hit stocks that had made significant rallies, the company said.

TCSC said the market may struggle, and even correct, as the rally had been going for the last two months.

In addition, the domestic market was still weighed down by a lack of positive news as the Vietnamese economy had been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter, the company said.

The VN-Index is forecast to struggle and stay between 840-880 points, according to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS), as investors are still pessimistic about the market’s short-term uptrend. — VNS