A statue of a bull and bear outside the HCM City Stock Exchange. 2020 was thought to be an unhappy year as COVID-19 was ravaging and a series of concerns arose for the global economy, but for investors, this has been a happy year. — Photo hsx.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares settled higher on Thursday, the penultimate trading day in a phenomenal year of pandemic, recession and recovery.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.58 per cent to end Thursday session at 1,103.87 points.

The index had lost 0.18 per cent to close the trade at 1,097.54 points.

More than 527.8 million shares were traded on the southern bourse on Thursday, worth VNĐ10.8 trillion (US$466.2 million).

Market breadth was positive with 290 gainers and 160 decliners.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was up 1.1 per cent to 1,070.77 points.

Nineteen of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket increased while nine declined.

“VN-Index remained in an uptrend for most of the transaction time and closed at the end of 2020 above 1,100 points. Meanwhile, foreign investors returned to be net buyers on the HoSE but still net sold on the HNX,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Market breadth turned positive but liquidity declined compared to the previous session. According to our assessment, VN-Index will maintain an uptrend at the beginning of the new year,” the company said.

Foreign investors bought VNĐ211.8 billion on HOSE, including Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with VNĐ75.7 billion and Military Bank (MBB) with VNĐ22 billion. They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ28.46 billion.

Strongest gainers on Thursday included Masan Group (MSN), rising 6.5 per cent, Techcombank (TCB), going up 5.4 per cent, SSI Securities Co (SSI), gaining 5.1 per cent, VPBank (VPB), climbing 2.2 per cent and FPT Corporation (FPT), up 1.7 per cent.

On the downside, losers were Eximbank (EIB), down 4.2 per cent, Sabeco (SAB), losing 2.5 per cent, and Novaland (NVL), falling 1.2 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index climbed 3.13 per cent to end Thursday at 203.12 points.

The index had inched down 0.08 per cent to close Wednesday at 196.94 points.

Nearly 136.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ1.7 trillion.

According to news site cafef.vn, 2020 was thought to be an unhappy year as COVID-19 was ravaging and a series of concerns arose for the global economy, but for investors, this has been the happiest year in history.

“Compared with the bottom reported at the end of March when COVID-19 appeared, VN-Index has recorded an increase of nearly 66 per cent and the HNX-Index has risen by 110 per cent. The incredible growth of the two indices has helped investors earn a lot of money,” the site said. — VNS