Blue chips help the Vietnamese stock market reach nearly 690 points in the morning session. — Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Shares rose steadily this morning on the two exchanges as investors were optimistic about market outlook and earnings prospects of listed companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was up over 1 per cent to close morning trade at 689.14 points. It rose 0.2 per cent yesterday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added 0.5 per cent to end at 85.4 points.

Blue chips continued to maintain the market's momentum with 22 of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation gaining value.

Financial and bank stocks were the largest gainers, as highest valued stocks such as Vietcombank (VCB), BIDV (BID), Vietinbank (VCB) and Sacombank (STB), as well as HCM Securities Co (HCM) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) increased between 1.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent each.

Overall market condition was positive with 217 out of 692 stocks advancing, while only 169 declined.

A total of 95 million shares worth VND1.6 trillion (US$70 million) were traded on the two exchanges.

Afternoon trade starts at 1pm. – VNS