Vietnamese shares increased on Friday morning on the rally of bank stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.72 per cent to close at 983.12 points.

The index dropped 0.66 per cent to close at 976.05 points on Thursday.

More than 83.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.8 trillion (US$77 million).

Banking stocks were the main supporters of the indexes today. Vietcombank (VCB) played a leading role when increasing 2.6 per cent to VNĐ78,400 per share. EIB rose 2.3 per cent to VNĐ17,700 per share. Asian Commercial Bank (ACB) rose by 1.6 per cent to VNĐ31,300 per share. Vietinbank (CTG) increased 1.6 per cent to VNĐ22,000 per share.

A series of other large-caps stocks such as Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), Vinhomes (VHM), Vingroup (VIC), Vietjet Air (VJC) and Vinamilk (VNM) also rallied and helped the market flourish.

On the other side, some pillars went against the general market trend. Hòa Phát Group (HPG) dropped by 1.9 per cent to only VNĐ20,550 per share and matched 2.9 million shares, of which, foreign investors sold over 1 million shares. Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) fell 1.5 per cent to VND84,500 per share.

The large-cap VN30-Index was up 0.85 per cent to 878.19 points.

Twenty-two of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation ended the morning session on a positive note.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index climbed 0.37 per cent to end at 107.13 points on Friday morning.

The northern market index had inched up 0.15 per cent to end at 106.74 points on Thursday.

More than 20 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND340 billion.

Afternoon trading starts at 1pm. – VNS