Insurance shares continued driving the national market up, helping the VN Index approach the benchmark of 630 points on July 10. However, the index lost its growth during the last minutes as blue chips could not maintain their strong increases.

By the end of the session, the VN Index added 5.18 points, equal to 0.83 percent, to reach 627.28 points on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index also made gain with an increase of 0.37 percent to finish at 88.24 points.

In total, local bourses traded 272.5 million shares, worth 4.13 trillion VND (191.5 million USD).

Overall, there were 207 advancing stocks and 179 decliners, while total 269 shares remained flat.

Bank shares had a positive session after the State Bank of Vietnam allowed commercial banks to raise their targeted credit growth.

Among them, only Sacombank (STB) recorded a slight loss in market value, while Vietinbank (CTG) gained 1,300 VND or 6.19 percent in market value to 22,300 VND per share.

Insurance shares led maket growth. Three reached ceiling values - BIDV Insurance Corporation (BIC), Bao Minh Insurance Corporation (BMI) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH). BVH made the highest gain of 3,500 VND to 58,000 VND per share.

Gas shares were mixed on the southern bourse. Although Petrovietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) declined, the rise of Petrovietnam Drilling & Well Service Corporation (PVD) and Petrovietnam Transportation Corporation (PVT) contributed to help lift the market.

Among blue chips, Kinh Do Corporation (KDC) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG) extended their gains. KDC added 1,700 VND to 45,800 VND per share, while HSG rose by 2.57 percent to 43,800 VND per share.

These two blue chips had the highest gains on the market.

Other large-cap shares including Ma San Group (MSN), Vingroup Corporation (VIC) and Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) also rose and lifted the market.

The market growth was limited as some of the large-cap shares fell from the previous session’s values. The performance of securities shares was less than expected.

HCM City Securities Corporation (HCM), Sai Gon Securities Incorporation (SSI), VNDirect Securities JSC (VND) and IB Securities JSC (VIX) were typical securities shares that lost their positions on the market.

Ocean Group Corporation (OGC) and Military Bank (MBB) were the two most active codes with 17.4 and 16.8 million shares traded, respectively.

On the northern market, Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real-Estate JSC (SCR) topped the trading activity with nearly 5.8 million shares and gained 3.49 percent to 8,900 VND per share.

Foreign investors returned to be net buyers during the session. The market recorded total 64.8 billion VND (3 million USD) in net buy value, which was a big improvement compared to a net sell value of 13.7 billion VND (634,200 USD) on the previous day.-VNA