Workers at a facility of PV Gas. The company's shares fell strongly on Friday, leading the market's downside. Photo courtesy of the company

HÀ NỘI — The market ticked lower on Friday but locked a monthly gain in the first month of 2023 on the back of foreign investors and strong rallies of financial and industrial stocks. 

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the last trading day of the week at 1,077.15 points, a fall of 0.44 points, or 0.04 per cent. 

The market’s breadth was neutral as the number of declining stocks on the southern bourse was equal to increasing ones. 

Liquidity fell over the previous session. Of which, trading value on HoSE reduced slightly to nearly VNĐ10.8 trillion (US$460.1 million), equivalent to a trading volume of over 563.7 million shares. 

The index’s reversal was due to persistent selling force as some investors continued to take profits after recent rallies. 

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also went down by 7.78 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 1.085,7 points. 

Sixteen ticker symbols of the VN30 basket plunged, while 14 stocks gained points.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also ticked lower. Specifically, the index finished the day at 215.28 points, down 0.03 points, or 0.01 per cent. 

During the session, more than 56.7 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ842.38 billion. 

PV Gas (GAS) posted the biggest loss on Friday with a fall of 1.68 per cent. Other stocks dominating the bearish trend were Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SSB), Techcombank (TCB), and Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG). These stocks lost at least 3.2 per cent on the day. 

The market pared losses on gains of some heavyweight stocks, led by Vietcombank (VCB) with a rise of 2.65 per cent in market capitalisation. 

The force from foreign capital flows also helped cushion the downtrend. Accordingly, foreign investors continued to net buy over VNĐ530 billion on HoSE and VNĐ16.5 billion on HNX.

The market registered a monthly gain last month, boosted by rallies of financial and industrial stocks, and positive flows from foreign investors. 

Statistics of HOSE showed that the VN-Index closed the first month of January at 1,111.18 points, up 10.34 per cent month-on-month but it decreased by 24.87 per cent over the same period in 2022.

Due to the week-long holiday, the stock market’s liquidity dipped compared to the previous month.

A positive point of the market was the net inflows of foreign capital.

Accordingly, the total transaction value of foreign investors in January reached over VNĐ34.3 trillion, accounting for more than 10.2 per cent of the total trading value of the whole market. Foreign investors net purchased more than VNĐ2.7 trillion.