VIETNAM, July 9 - HÀ NỘI — Benchmark indices settled higher on the last trading day of the week as some investors snapped up bargains after recent heavy losses. However, they were set for a weekly loss. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index ended Friday at 1,171.31 points, an increase of 4.83 points, or 0.41 per cent. The market benchmark recovered more than 1 per cent in the previous session after falling for three consecutive sessions. 

The market's breadth was still in positive territory with 325 stocks climbing, while 130 stocks pulled back. Liquidity also improved, as over VNĐ10.4 trillion (US$446.3 million) was poured into HoSE, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 476.4 million shares. 

The index continued to rally on the back of manufacturing, energy, retail and securities stocks. 

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also ended higher despite more stocks declining than gaining points. Of which it rose by 2.31 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 1,231.54 points. 

Twelve stocks of the VN30 basket inched up with SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) hitting the ceiling price, while 14 stocks decreased and four stayed unchanged. 

According to data from financial website vietstock.vn, Hòa Phát Group (HPG) was the biggest gainer in market capitalisation in the last trading day, up 3.22 per cent. 

Other pillar stocks supporting the bullish trend were PV Gas (GAS), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), Masan Group (MSN) and VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND). These stocks were up at least 1.5 per cent, while DIG also set the biggest daily gain of 7 per cent. 

However, losses in the banking sector weighed on the market and capped the rallies. Many big names saw great falls yesterday, including BIDV (BID) down nearly 3.6 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB) down nearly 2 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG) down 1.52 per cent and VPBank (VPB) down 1.04 per cent. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also rebounded after losing for three straight sessions. The northern bourse's benchmark index finished Friday at 277.8 points, up 5.94 points, or 2.18 per cent. 

During the day, over 54.4 million shares were traded on HNX, worth more than VNĐ1 trillion.

Foreign investors were still net sellers on both main exchanges, of which they net sold VNĐ400.27 billion on HoSE and nearly VNĐ14 billion on HNX. VNS