Vietnamese shares extended gains for a second session thanks to sole efforts of some large-cap companies and declining oil prices.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) was up 0.23 per cent to close at 923.12 points.

The southern market index has increased by total 0.56 per cent in the last two trading days.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange dropped 0.76 per cent to end at 103.19 points.

The northern market index has lost total 1.3 per cent in the last three sessions starting on Friday.

Large-cap companies remained the driver of the stock market thanks to their own business information.

In the VN30 basket, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, only eight stocks advanced.

Among gainers were Coteccons Construction Corporation (HoSE: CTD), which jumped 3 per cent after having announced it would buy back 3.8 million treasury shares.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (HoSE: VNM) and property developer Vingroup (HoSE: VIC) continued their growth, rising 2.8 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.

The best-performing among those eight large-cap companies was PetroVietnam Fertiliser and Chemicals Corporation (HoSE: DPM), which soared 4.5 per cent.

DPM shares gained one-fifth in value in the last month as the slump of global oil prices may reduce the company’s production cost and boost its profit margin in the last quarter of the year.

Brent crude on Tuesday edged up 0.2 per cent to trade at US$60.57 a barrel, but it has shed nearly 30 per cent in almost two months from its one-year high of $86.29 a barrel.

The stock market’s growth was also attributed to net foreign purchases, which touched VND138 billion, while foreign investors posted VND42.6 billion in net sell value on Monday.

But the decline of crude also had a negative impact on local petroleum firms such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) and PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB).

GAS inched down 0.2 per cent, PVS lost 2.1 per cent and PVB slid 1.7 per cent.

Other sectors that weighed on the market included banking, pharmaceuticals, rubber production, seafood processing and wholesale, according to vietstock.vn.

More than 184 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND4.1 trillion ($182.2 million).

Though trading liquidity improved in both volume and value compared to Monday it was still below the average level of the last 20 trading days, indicating that investors had not really returned to the market, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS) said in a daily report.

As market sentiment was expected to remain weak, the benchmark VN-Index may move between 900 and 930 points on Wednesday with low liquidity, SHS forecasts. – VNS