A Hòa Phát Group facility in Phố Nối A Industrial Park, Hưng Yên Province. Shares of the steel company rose 2.5 per cent on Thursday. VNA/VNS Photo Phạm Kiên

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares edged up on Thursday on the back of a few blue chips while increased profit taking kept hitting mid-cap and small-cap sectors.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.27 per cent to 942.76 points.

The VN-Index has gained total 2.60 per cent in the last five trading days.

Multisectoral company Vingroup (VIC), steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG) and consumer firm Masan (MSN) were the three blue chips that boosted the market.

VIC advanced 2.6 per cent, HPG rose 2.5 per cent and MSN added 1.4 per cent.

The property, materials and consumer sector indices, therefore, increased by 1.9 per cent, 1.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively, according to vietstock.vn.

VIC, HPG and MSN were three of the 19 gaining large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket.

Other large-cap gainers included Sacombank (STB), Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (PNJ), HDBank (HDB) and aviation company Vietjet (VJC).

Of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30, eight declined, such as Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), Vinhomes (VHM) and PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS).

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index gained 0.79 per cent to 899.20 points at the end of Thursday.

The VN30 futures due on Thursday was up nearly 0.50 per cent to 899.20 points.

Aside from the positive growth of the large-cap sector, profit taking kept weighing on mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

The mid-cap and small-cap trackers on HoSE fell 0.17 per cent and 1.06 per cent, respectively.

Across the southern bourse, declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 223 to 184 while 66 stocks were unchanged.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 1.58 per cent to 139.66 points.

Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Việt Nam-Germany Steel JSC (VGS) rose between 2.1 per cent and 9.3 per cent to boost the northern market.

The HNX-Index has rallied total 2.77 per cent in the last three trading days.

More than 537.7 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ10.47 trillion (US$451.7 million).

Foreign investors net-sold VNĐ278.7 billion worth of local assets, down 52 per cent in value from Wednesday.

According to Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC), large-cap stocks still carried the market up but the momentum has weakened at the 940-950 point zone.

The market will struggle in coming days when blue chips weaken and profit taking increases on their rallies, the company said. — VNS