Vietnam stocks close week in green as Asian shares inch higher

The index closed 5.75 points higher after dropping 7.59 points in the previous session.

Trading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange decreased by 7% to VND15.481 trillion (US$628.7 million).

The VN-30 basket, comprising the 30 largest capped stocks, saw 22 tickers gained.

MSN of conglomerate Masan Group saw the biggest growth of 2.6%, followed by VRE of retail real estate arm Vincom Retail, up 2.0%, and PLX of fuel distributor Petrolimex with a 2.0% increase.

Six blue chips fell. SSB of lender SeABank went down 2.7%, VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup dropped 0.9%, and HDB of lender HDBank closed 0.7% lower.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of VND233 billion, mainly buying MBB of lender MBBank and FPT of IT giant FPT Corporation.

The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, fell 0.13%, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market went down 0.15%.

Globally, Asian shares struggled for direction while the yen jumped on Friday, as investors remained on tenterhooks ahead of U.S. jobs data that could decide the size and speed of coming rate cuts in the world's largest economy, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged 0.2% higher, heading towards a 2.8% drop for the week.

The Nikkei dropped 0.7% as the yen jumped, weighing on the outlook for Japanese exports. The index is down about 4% this week.

Europe is set for a lower open, with both EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures off 0.2%. Nasdaq futures skidded 0.5% while S&P futures slipped 0.2%.