A worker on a production line at Vinamilk's plant. Vinamilk was one of the leading shares yesterday, up 1.68 per cent. — Photo www.vinamilk.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The market closed higher on Friday as many large-cap stocks surged and foreign investors continued to pour cash in. 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) rose 0.69 per cent, equivalent to 8.35 points, to 1,224.45 points. The market breadth remained positive as 274 stocks climbed while 142 stocks fell and 67 ended flat. 

After breaking over 1,200 points again, the index didn't move down but kept edging to new highs. 

"The market is expected to continue gaining in the last trading session of the week. After hitting 1,200 points, the market's next resistance territory will be 1,235 - 1,250 points," Trần Xuân Bách, a senior stock analyst from Bảo Việt Securities Co., said.

"The market has opportunities to enter new rallies in the near term and is heading to test the above resistance level in the short-term.

"However, we also noticed that the index will likely fall to previous points, before testing new highs," Bách added. 

The market's liquidity was high with a trading volume of over 661.3 million shares, worth over VNĐ16.37 trillion. 

The rally was mostly thanks to gains in large-cap stocks. 

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, increased 0.97 per cent, equivalent to 11.87 points, to 1,238.03 points. 

In the VN30 basket, 22 stocks rose, while five declined and three stayed unchanged. 

Stocks from banking, real estate and construction, materials and information technology (IT) posted good performance yesterday.

In the top five stocks dominating the market's rally, Vinhomes JSC (VHM) contributed the most for the gain, up 1.72 per cent. Followed by Việt Nam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk, VNM), up 1.68 per cent, JSC Bank For Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), up 2.39 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB), up 0.93 per cent, and Sacombank (STB), up 4.63 per cent. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rose 0.85 per cent to close the week at 294.89 points. The HNX30-Index also gained 1.82 per cent to 444.22 points. 

In Friday's trade, over 181.9 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ3.5 trillion. 

Foreign investors continue to pour into Việt Nam's stock market as they net bought a total value of VNĐ699.16 billion in the market.

Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ693.62 billion on HoSE and a value of VNĐ13.28 billion on HNX, but net sold a value of VNĐ7.74 billion on UPCOM. — VNS