A production line of brewery company Sabeco (SAB). SAB rose 4.9 per cent on Friday. — Photo antt.vn

 HÀ NỘI — Shares climbed on Friday thanks to a strong boost from a massive surge in new trading accounts opened by punters seeking to bottom fish from a giant slump amid COVID-19.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí  Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.62 per cent to close at 847.61 points.

The index had lost 0.13 per cent on Thursday to close at 842.38 points.

More than 203 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ3.6 trillion (US$154.5 billion).

“Market liquidity continued to decline, market breadth was positive, showing optimism at the end of the trading week. VN-Index is likely to move in the area of 840-860 points in the next sessions,” said BIDV Securities Company

According to the Việt Nam Securities Depository, domestic investors opened more than 35,000 new trading accounts in June this year.

This is the 4th consecutive month the stock market recorded a number of newly-opened accounts exceeding 30,000. In the last four months, domestic investors have opened a total of nearly 137,800 new trading accounts, equivalent to 73 per cent of the total number in 2019.

VSD said the steep decline of the local stock market as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged economies lured many new punters to the market as they sought to accumulate beaten-down stocks in the massive sell-offs during the peak of the pandemic.

Large-cap stocks also strongly supported the market as the blue chip tracker VN30-Index increased by 0.54 per cent to 789.87 points.

Eighteen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket rose while seven decreased.

Among gaining large-caps were Vinhomes (VHM), up 1.2 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE), increasing 1.1 per cent, Vinamilk (VNM), rising by 1 per cent, HDBank (HDB), soaring 5.3 per cent.

Shares of Việt Nam’s top brewer Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco) also fueled the gains of indices as SAB rose 4.9 per cent after the information that the State capital at the company will be soon transferred to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC).

The government has set a deadline of August 31 for the transfer of 36 per cent of State capital in Sabeco from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to SCIC.

On the negative side, some pillar stocks still lost steam and weighed on the overall market, including insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam GAS JSC (GAS), steel maker Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Mobile World Group (MWG), Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ) and VPBank (VPB).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also declined 0.05 per cent to close Friday at 111.55 points.

More than 34 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ366 billion.

Local gold prices soared on Friday to near VNĐ50 million (US$2,168) per tael (1.2 ounces).

On Friday, the Saigon Gold and Jewelry Company listed each tael of SJC gold at VNĐ49.48 million for buying, VNĐ49.87 million for selling.

Compared to Thursday, that represented an increase of more than VNĐ80,000 and VNĐ320,000 for buying and selling, respectively. — VNS