VIETNAM, January 3 - HÀ NỘI — The stock market finished higher on the first trading day of the new year, boosted by bullish sentiment with many blue-chip and large-cap stocks hitting the maximum intraday gain.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index ended the day at 1,043.9 points, an increase of 36.81 points, or 3.66 per cent. It closed slightly lower on the last trading day of 2022, hovering around 1,007.09 points. 

The gain helped the market benchmark claim back most of the recent losses.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also inched up on Tuesday, up 7.25 points, or 3.53 per cent, to 212.56 points. 

The market opened the new year on a positive note with more stocks in the bull market. Of which, 435 ticker symbols on both main exchanges rose, while 104 stocks went down. 

Liquidity also improved over the previous session. Specifically, investors poured more than VNĐ9.2 trillion (US$393.1 million), up nearly 25 per cent, into the southern bourse, equal to a trading volume of more than 551.3 million shares. 

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, advanced sharply by 42.06 points, or 4.18 per cent, to 1,047.25 points. 

In the VN30 basket, all stocks added points, of which four stocks, including Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Phát Đạt Real Estate Development JSC (PDR), SSI Securities Corporation (SSI), and Vincom Retail (VRE) registering the biggest daily rise of 7 per cent. 

Optimistic sentiment was the main driver of the rally, lifting stocks in most industries. 

Leading the market uptrend were the popular sectors, including banking, realty and manufacturing. BIDV was the biggest gainer in terms of the market's value, up 6.74 per cent. 

Speaking at the market's first session ceremony earlier in the day, Deputy Finance Minister Nguyễn Đức Chi said that the Vietnamese stock market will rebound strongly, developing in both size and quality. It will continue to be the economy's effective capital mobilisation channel and the Government's macro-management tool. 

Even though the market has experienced ups and downs in 2022, it still operated stably, safely, and smoothly as most listed companies recorded profits, and more domestic and foreign investors participated, Chi said. 

The deputy ministers suggested the industry focus on completing regimes, mechanisms, and policies to amend the Securities Law, relevant laws, and documents to continuously develop the stock market in terms of scale. 

In addition, the market needs to improve the quality, financial capacity, and competition of organisations participating in the market, while concentrating on innovation, application, and development of information technology systems in service of management and supervision.

The market also received support from foreign cash inflows as foreign investors continued to be net buyers on two main exchanges. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ241.19 billion on HoSE and VNĐ15.93 billion on HNX. VNS