Steel producer Hòa Phát's plant in Hải Dương Province. The company shares jumped 3.2 per cent on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares posted the biggest gain in four weeks on Friday and beat brokerage firms’ cautious forecast on the back of the large-cap sector.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 1.46 per cent to 1,045.96 points on Friday, logging the best daily increase in four weeks since November 17 when it rose 1.90 per cent.

The benchmark rebounded from a 0.79 per cent slump on Thursday and totalled a 2.39 per cent growth this week.

The large-cap sector made impressive growth to support the market.

The blue-chip tracker VN30-Index rose 1.45 per cent to 1,008.65 points.

Twenty-four of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity advanced while only three declined.

Among the best-performing large-cap stocks were Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (PNJ), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), brewer Sabeco (SAB), SSI Securities (SSI) and steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG).

PNJ, SAB and HPG rose between 3.2 per cent and 6.0 per cent on Friday. Those three stocks fell 1.2-6.9 per cent on Thursday.

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks also recovered after having been hit by a large-scale sell-off in the previous day.

The two trackers rose 1.07 per cent and 1.10 per cent, respectively.

The market breadth on the southern bourse was positive with 313 gaining stocks and 124 decliners.

The strong market demand was the main cause of the market recovery on Friday after stocks had been pushed down to cheaper price levels the previous day, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

“The capital inflow remained high… helping sectors bouncing back strongly,” the company added.

More than 463.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ10.56 trillion (nearly US$456 million).

However, Friday’s market recovery may mean a bull trap for investors and a market slump like Thursday may occur anytime, TCSC warned.

“That means investors could become cautious and trade carefully in coming days to prepare for any possible collapses.”

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was up 1.90 per cent to 162.32 points, marking its best daily gain since November 12 when it advanced 1.97 per cent.

The HNX-Index has rallied a total of nearly 10 per cent in nine straight days since December 1.

More than 61 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ843.3 billion. — VNS