A worker at a factory of Hoà Phát Group (HPG). HPG soared 4.3 per cent on Wednesday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Shares made strong gains on Wednesday with the VN-30 Index conquering the 1,400-point landmark, propelled by surging large-cap stocks.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) rose 0.78 per cent, or 9.81 points, to finish Wednesday at 1,262.49 points.

It had declined 0.48 per cent, or 6.02 points, to finish Tuesday at 1,252.68 points.

The market breadth Wednesday was negative as 235 stocks declined while 183 rose and 46 ended flat.

The market’s liquidity was high with over 694.4 million shares traded on the southern market, worth VND21.6 trillion (US$937 million).

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, gained 1.68 per cent to reach a new high of 1,401.71 points.

Of the VN30 basket, 16 stocks increased while 11 decreased.

A series of blue-chips soared during the trading session, pushing up the gains of VN-Index and VN-30 Index.

FPT Corporation (FPT), Sacombank (STB) and Hoà Phát Group (HPG) led the group with more than 4-per-cent rise. Military Bank (MBB), Vietinbank (TCB) and Vietinbank (CTG) all rose by 3 per cent. HDBank (HDB), Masan Group (MSN), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and SSI Securities Corp (SSI) advanced more than 2 per cent.

In contrast, Vietjet (VJC), PVPower (POW) and Vincom Retail (VRE) were the biggest losers of the group, dropping more than 2 per cent.

“The VN-Index struggled mainly around the reference level in the first two hours but then gradually increased and closed above 1,260,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Investment cash flow improved slightly, foreign investors were net sellers on both HoSE and HNX. In addition, market breadth moved to equilibrium with liquidity not much different from the previous session.

“According to our assessment, VNIndex may return to challenge the 1,270-1,280 resistance area in the coming sessions,” it said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ240.9 billion on HOSE, including Vinamilk (VNM) with VNĐ97.3 billion, VPBank (VPB) with VNĐ87.5 billion and Novaland (NVL)with VNĐ60 billion. They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ13.59 billion.

On a sector basis, gainers included real estate, securities, IT, healthcare, banking, rubber production, plastic-chemical production, food and beverage and construction materials.

Decliners included wholesale, insurance, retail, energy, agriculture, seafood processing, construction and logistics.

Meanwhile, on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index climbed 0.21 per cent to close Wednesday at 295.25 points.

The northern market index had declined 0.72 per cent to close Tuesday at 294.64 points.

During the session, nearly 131 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ2.9 trillion. — VNS