VN-Index moves up before Tet holiday

The index stayed in the green most of the day and closed eight points higher after losing nearly 11 points Thursday.

Trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, rose 23 percent to VND20.66 trillion ($912.14 million).

Vietnam’s stock market will return trading on February 7.

The VN30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 21 tickers in the green Friday, led by TPB of private TPBank with a 4.4 percent gain.

The ticker is now at a two-week high after faling from its new peak on Nov. 12.

FPT of IT giant FPT Corporation rose 4.2 percent, bouncing back from the falling trend which began from the end of November.

PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development hit a two-week high with a 3.8 percent increase.

Other gaining stocks are SSI of leading brokerage SSI Securities Corporation, up 3.8 percent, and VPB of private lender VPBank, up 3.4 percent.

Seven blue chip tickers dropped, with GAS of state-owned Petrovietnam Gas losing 2.5 percent and VCB of state-owned lender Vietcombank falling 2.2 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers for the fourth session in a row to the tune of VND329 billion with focus on KBC of industrial real estate developer Kinh Bac City and STB of Ho Chi Minh City-based lender Sacombank.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 1.33 percent while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market gained 0.88 percent