Employees talk to clients at an office of BIDV. Shares of the bank soared 1.95 per cent on Friday, leading the market's bullish trend. — Photo bidv.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The stock market closed the week on a positive note on gains of banking and some pillar stocks, while foreign investors kept selling on the biggest bourse.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) extended the uptrend since the market reopened after the New Year holiday. It increased 3.96 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 1,154.68 points.

The breadth of the market remained in negative territory as 140 stocks inched higher while 169 declined.

Liquidity dropped from the previous session, down 35.6 per cent to VNĐ16.3 trillion (US$668.6 million). This was equal to a trading volume of nearly 803.3 million shares.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, rose 4.77 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 1,161.14 points. In the VN30 basket, up to 19 stocks added up points while 11 ticker symbols hit lower.

According to the Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), the market is moving positively and has approached the short-term barrier of 1,150 points.

"In the short term, the market is likely to fluctuate and correct at the resistance area, but with a good short-term accumulation base, we expect that after further accumulation, the VN-Index will soon surpass this threshold to enter the expected area of ​​medium-term accumulation," said SHS.

In the top five stocks leading the market's bullish trend, BIDV (BID) led the rally with a gain of 1.95 per cent. It was followed by Vietinbank (CTG), up 1.4 per cent, MBBank (MBB) rose 2 per cent and Vietcombank (VCB) up 0.35 per cent.

Other large-cap stocks contributed to the uptrend were Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Sacombank (STB), PVGas (GAS), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) and Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB). All the stocks soared in a range of 0.65-2.45 per cent.

In the contrast, many stocks still faced sell-off. Vinhomes (VHM) plunged 0.81 per cent, VPBank (VPB) was down 0.78 per cent, and Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN) dipped 2.3 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched higher to 232.76 points, an increase of 0.2 points, or 0.09 per cent.

Investors poured VNĐ1.14 trillion into the northern exchange, equivalent to a trading volume of 60.95 million.

Foreign capital was still run away from the market as foreign investors withdrew a net value of VNĐ411.27 billion on both main exchanges. In particular, they net sold VNĐ422.84 bilion on HoSE but net bought VNĐ11.57 billion on HNX.