Vietnamese shares bounced back on Friday following sharp falls earlier this week that had lowered stocks to attractive prices, triggering investors to bottom-fish.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 2.56 per cent to close at 970.08 points, reversing its loss of 4.84 per cent in the previous session.

For the whole week, the VN-Index fell in three out of five sessions. The index dropped 38.31 points or 3.8 per cent this week.

The minor HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange rose 2.41 per cent to end at 109.76 points after having decreased by 5.79 per cent on Thursday.

More than 291.6 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ5.9 trillion (US$252 million).

The trading figures were down 36 per cent in both volume and value compared to Thursday’s numbers.

The market trading condition was positive with 355 gaining stocks against 115 declining, while 276 other stocks were unchanged.

Securities, banking, insurance and real estate stocks recorded the highest growth rates on Thursday to bolster the market’s rise, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The capital inflow resulted in 19 of the 20 sectors seeing recovery, according to vietstock.vn.

The large-cap VN30 Index was up 2.55 per cent to 943.49 points.

The biggest contributors of the market were real estate developer Vingroup (VIC), VCS, Vietcombank (VCB), Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Việt Nam Joint Stock Bank of Investment and Development (BID) and insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

Bank stocks slumped by 4.9 per cent, including Military Bank (MBB), down 8.02 per cent, SHB falling 6.74 per cent and VPBank (VPB) losing 5.83 per cent.

Oil-gas stocks slid 2.25 per cent as PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) respectively dropped by 10.54 per cent, 9.91 per cent and 6.96 per cent.

Real-estate stocks and securities stocks subsequently fell 1.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent, dragged down by Thu Duc Housing Development Corporation (TDH), Vincom Retail (VRE), Kinh Bắc City Development Share Holding Corporation (KBC), MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS), VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND) and Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM).

Asian stocks rallied despite the slide of the US stock market for a second consecutive session. Specifically, major indices on Asian stock market, including the Nikkei 225, Shanghai Composite, Hangseng and Kospi, respectively increased by 0.46 per cent, 0.91 per cent, 2.12 per cent and 1.51 per cent.

On Thursday, US stocks slumped as Dow Jones, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all dropped sharply, triggering worries and declines across the Asian stock markets, including the Việt Nam stock market. However, the indices rebounded on Friday and settled at a higher level afterwards. Việt Nam stocks had similar movement as both the VN-Index and HNX-Index climbed.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company, despite plunging this week, the market still settled above the 918-933 support zone. The index is likely to move towards the 975-990 resistance zone next week. — VNS