Shares ticked up in the last trading session of the week, reversing Thursday's course, as investors went bargain-hunting on banking, real estate, steel, securities and retail stocks. 

 

The market's benchmark on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) increased 7.12 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 1,095.61 points. It rebounded from the loss of more than 25 points in the previous session due to unexpectedly strong selling force. 

 

However, the breadth of the market was still negative as the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers by 177 to 128 stocks. 

 

Liquidity also decreased with the trading volume and value down 4.2 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively, from the previous trade to 958.3 million shares and VNĐ19.2 trillion (US$792.6 million).

 

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, closed the week at 1,087.34 points, an increase of 4.66 points, or 0.43 per cent. In the VN30 basket, 17 stocks inched higher, while nine were down and four stayed flat. 

 

The uptrend's leader today was Sabeco (SAB). Shares of the leading brewer posted a gain of 4.3 per cent. 

 

Other stocks influencing the market's sentiment were BIDV (BID), up 1.51 per cent, Hòa Phát Group (HPG) rose 2.13 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB) inched up 0.58 per cent and Vietinbank (CTG) climbed 1.37 per cent. 

 

Securities stocks also witnessed recoveries after strong corrections on Thursday. In particular, VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND) climbed 3.4 per cent, SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) increased 3.56 per cent, Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) was up 4.71 per cent, VIX Securities JSC (VIX) soared 3.75 per cent and Hồ Chí Minh Securities Corporation (HCM) was up 2.8 per cent. 

 

In contrast, some big names still faced strong sell-off, with Techcombank (TCB) down 1.15 per cent, Masan Group (MSN) down 2.37 per cent and Vinamilk (VNM) plunged 0.58 per cent. 

 

The northern market's benchmark, the HNX-Index also finished higher at 226.1 points, up 1.56 points, or 0.69 per cent. 

 

During the session, nearly 124 million shares were traded on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), worth more than VNĐ2.2 trillion. 

 

The market also received support from the return of foreign capital. Foreign investors net bought over VNĐ407.9 billion on both main exchanges. Of which, they net bought VNĐ408.16 billion on HoSE, while net sold a small amount of nearly VNĐ242 million on HNX. VNS