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

Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index continued its upward trend Thursday, climbing 1.61 percent to 1,174.38 points. 

A small selling pressure in the first hour of trading was not enough to hold back buyers as the index stayed green throughout the rest of the day, ending with a 18.6-point increase.

This means that the index is 20 points away from returning to this year’s peak of 1194 points that was reached on January 15 before it plunged to the 1,000-point mark over large selling pressure before the Lunar New Year holiday.

The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, on which the index is based, saw 277 stocks gain and 166 lose. Trading volume rose 14.5 percent to VND15.13 trillion ($585 million).

Twenty-five of 30 stocks in the VN30 basket gained, led by TCH of truck distributor and assembler Hoang Huy Investment Financial Services Jsc at 6.1 percent, followed by GAS of state-owned PetroVietnam Gas Jsc at 3.7 percent and MSN of conglomerate Masan Group at 3.4 percent.

VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail, which was the biggest gainer Wednesday, rose 3.3 percent, followed by BID of state-owned lender BIDV at 3.1 percent.

Other banks that gained included VCB of top state-owned lender by profits Vietcombank at 2 percent, MBB of Military Bank at 1.6 percent and TCB of biggest private lender Techcombank at 1.3 percent.

The only two losers in the VN30 basket were SSI of top brokerage SSI Securities Corporation, down 0.7 percent, and STB of Ho Chi Minh City-based lender Sacombank, down 0.8 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers for the second consecutive session to the tune of VND616 billion. Their top purchases included HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, VRE and MBB.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 2.3 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on the Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 0.39 percent.