Customers consult a saleswoman at a store of Mobile World Group (MWG) in Hà Nội. MWG soared 5.9 per cent on Thursday. — Photo thegioididong.vn

Vietnamese stock markets ended Thursday on a positive note, largely led by gains in financial shares and heavy-weight stocks.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 1.25 per cent to close Thursday at 1,278.22 points.

It had risen 0.78 per cent, or 9.81 points, to finish Wednesday at 1,262.49 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 745.2 million shares traded on the southern market, worth VNĐ22.7 trillion (US$984.8 million).

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

Foreign investors were net sellers on both HSX and HNX. In addition, market breadth moved to equilibrium with liquidity not much different from the previous session.

VNIndex is expected to return to challenge the 1,270-1,280 resistance area in the coming sessions.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ240.9 billion on HOSE, include 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.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, gained 1.66 per cent to reach 1,424.92 points on Thursday.

Of the VN30 basket, 23 stocks increased while six decreased.

A series of blue-chips soared during the trading session, pushing up the gains of the VN-Index and VN-30 Index, such as FPT Corporation (FPT), Mobile World Group (MWG), Masan Group (MSN), Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ).

Financial stocks also performed well with gainers including Vietcombank (VCB), Military Bank (MBB), HDBank (HDB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB) and Techcombank (TCB).

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

Decliners included agriculture, seafood processing, insurance and energy.

Meanwhile, on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 0.05 per cent to close Thursday at 295.10 points.

The northern market index had climbed 0.21 per cent to close Wednesday at 295.25 points.

During the session, nearly 129 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ2.6 trillion. — VNS