Logo of Đất Xanh Group (DXG) seen at its headquarters in HCM City. DXG rose 3.1 per cent on Friday. — Photo vtc.vn

Shares finished Friday trade on a positive note, mainly driven by the growth of the construction-real estate stock group.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) was up 0.17 per cent to close at 1,021.49 points.

It had increased 0.54 per cent to close Thursday’s session at 1,019.80 points.

Nearly 553.6 million shares were traded on the southern exchange on Friday morning, worth VNĐ10.7 trillion (US$464 million).

Market breadth was negative with 246 decliners and 197 gainers.

“Market liquidity increased again, market amplitude remained unchanged and market breadth was positive,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“All these indicators are supporting the current uptrend. Foreign investors were net buyers on HOSE while being net sellers on HNX.

“With the VN-Index about to approach the threshold of 1,025 points, investors may consider short-term profit-taking actions on stocks that had a large upside during the recent rally,” the company said.

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ444.22 billion on HOSE, including VPBank (VPB) with VNĐ128.5 billion, Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with VNĐ59.2 billion and Vinamilk (VNM) with VNĐ40.4 billion.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, declined 0.11 per cent to end Friday at 984.34 points.

In the VN-30 basket, 16 stocks dropped while eleven increased.

Heavyweight stocks attracted cash flow, such as Vietinbank (CTG), FPT Corporation (FPT), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Masan Group (MSN), Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ), Bank for Investment and Development (BID), the Vietnam Rubber Group JSC (GVR) and Sabeco (SAB).

The real estate and construction sectors traded quite positively with many gainers such as Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), C.E.O Group JSC (CEO), Đất Xanh Group (DXG), Hoà Bình Construction  JSC (HBC), Hà Đô Group JSC (HDG), Hudland Real Estate Investment and Development JSC (HLD) and Phục Hưng Holdings JSC.

As many as 12 out of 25 sectors on the stock market gained ground, including real estate, information and technology, healthcare, energy, agriculture and food and beverage.

Their indices rose between 0.13 per cent and 4 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Meanwhile, rubber production wholesale, retail, insurance, banking, securities and logistics were among the decliners, dropping between 0.04 and 1.4 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.33 per cent to close Friday at 152.48 points.

The index edged up 0.79 per cent to close Thursday trade at 151.99 points.

More than 72.5 million shares were traded on the exchange, worth VNĐ956 trillion.

Foreign investors were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ9.81 billion. — VNS