An investor looks at stock prices on a screen at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 

The VN-Index added 0.22 percent to 1,166.78 points Friday, with real estate blue chips some of the market’s best performers. 

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw a fairly balanced session with 211 stocks gaining and 233 losing. Total trading volume rose slightly over the previous session to VND16 trillion ($695.69 million).

According to brokerage MBS, based on technical analysis, the market entered a new short-term uptrend after falling hard by 5.11 percent Tuesday, and could be well on its way to again challenge the 1,200 resistance threshold.

However, brokerage BVSC said investors are now more cautious, and expects to see daily gains of lesser magnitude, with more market-correcting sessions.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s largest caps rose 0.46 percent, with 17 stocks rising and 10 falling.

Topping gains again was ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, up seven percent to hit ceiling price. Despite this, ROS closed at VND4,380, far below its VND12,600 IPO in 2016 and a high of VND178,000 in late 2017.

The ticker has been plummeting since early 2018 as a result of increasingly poor business performance, and is now the smallest capped stock on the VN30.

Real estate stocks were the best gainers on the market, with NVL of Novaland climbing 4.1 percent, KDH of Khang Dien House 2.9 percent, TCH of Hoang Huy Group 2.2 percent, and VHM of Vinhomes 0.3 percent.

Other major gainers included EIB of private Eximbank, up 2.5 percent, VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, with 2.1 percent, FPT of IT services giant FPT and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, both up two percent.

Private banks were mostly in the green. HDB of HDBank added 1.2 percent, VPB of VPBank 0.8 percent, TCB of Techcombank 0.3 percent, while STB of Sacombank shed 0.3 percent.

Results were mixed in the public banking sector, with CTG of VietinBank adding 1.6 percent, VCB of Vietcombank keeping its opening price, BID of BIDV topping losses with 2.7 percent, and MBB of mid-sized Military Bank shedding 0.8 percent.

Other major losing stocks included SSI of top brokerage SSI Securities Corporation, down 2.3 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, down 1.5 percent, and HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, with 1.2 percent.

The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and smaller- caps, edged down 0.06 percent this session, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market gained 0.18 percent.

Foreign investors net sold around VND50 billion worth of stocks on all three bourses, with HPG of Hoa Phat Group and VNM of Vinamilk the most net offloaded stocks.