A worker of steel company Hoà Phát Group (HPG). Shares of HPG rose 3.3 per cent on Friday. VNA/VNS Photo

 HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares stayed positive on Friday on the back of strong buying demand, contrasting the downturn of regional stock markets.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.26 per cent to close at 1,168.47 points.

It had gained 0.29 per cent to close Thursday at 1,165.43 points.

More than 554.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ14.9 trillion (US$642.3 million).

Market breadth was neutral with 216 gainers and 209 losers.

The recent sharp increase in US Treasury bond yields had a negative impact on Asian stock markets, causing many indices to fall deeply, said financial news site cafef.vn.

The Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 3.99 per cent on Friday, South Korea’s Kospi was down 2.8 per cent, Shanghai Composite declined 2.12 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hangseng Index dropped 3.64 per cent.

Vietnamese stock market also suffered strong selling pressure in the opening minutes on Friday as it decreased by 17 points. However, the strong bottom-fishing demand from domestic investors helped the VN-Index recover dramatically toward the end of the trading session.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index gained 0.32 per cent to stay at 1,173.60 points.

Fourteen of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket increased while 14 lost ground. Two stayed unchanged.

Notable gainers included steel maker Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with a large gain of more than 3 per cent.

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Military Bank (MBB), Phát Đạt  Real Estate Development Joint Stock Company (PDR), Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ) and VPBank (VPB) all climbed more than 1 per cent.

On the other side, Vincom Retail (VRE), Khang Điền House (KDH), HDBank (HDB), Vinhomes (VHM) and Thành Thành Công Biên Hoà JSC (SBT) were the stocks that maintained the downtrend of more than 1 per cent decrease.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rallied 1.23 per cent to end Friday at 249.22 points.

The northern market index had rallied 3.49 per cent to end Thursday at 246.20 points.

More than 123.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ2.1 trillion.

“VN-Index remained in downtrend in most of the trading time, but MSCI's increasing the proportion of Vietnamese stocks in its portfolio helped the index gain at the end of the session,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Foreign investors continued to be net sellers on the HSX and net buyers on the HNX. Market breadth turned to equilibrium with increased liquidity compared to the previous session.

“According to our assessment, VN-Index is likely to continue fluctuating in the first week of March,” it said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ472.77 billion on HOSE, including Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ137.1 billion), Vincom Retail (VRE) (VNĐ75.4 billion) and Đất Xanh Group (DXG) (VNĐ46.1 billion). Foreigners were net buyers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ25.18 billion. — VNS