Vietnamese shares advanced on Monday morning, driven by listed banks, securities firms and tech groups.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was up 0.62 per cent to close at 1,021.90 points.

The VN-Index gained total 1.9 per cent last week.

More than 121.3 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2.56 trillion (US$110.5 million).

Bank stocks drove the market up on Monday morning with the sector index growing by 2.5 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The strongest growing bank stocks included Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Techcombank (TCB) and Vietinbank (CTG).

They increased by 1.6-3.3 per cent.

Following bank stocks were securities firms and technology companies, whose industry indices were up 1.1 per cent and 1.8 per cent.

The large-cap VN30-Index rose 0.60 per cent on those large-caps.

On the negative side, property firms Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE) fell 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent after having surged last week.

Vinhomes (VHM) – another large-cap firm – gained slightly by 1.1 per cent.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG) went down.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added 1.84 per cent to end at 106.64 points.

The northern market index increased by total 1 per cent last week.

Nearly 14.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND200 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS