Vietnamese shares gained further on Monday morning, driven by large-cap companies.

The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.97 per cent to end at 889.45 points.

The southern market index was up 0.31 per cent on Friday but ended down a total of 1.3 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange increased by 1.25 per cent to close at 102.11 points.

The northern market index edged up 0.32 per cent on Friday, spelling a total loss of 3.25 per cent for the week.

Nearly 74.8 million shares were traded on the two exchanges worth VND1.35 trillion (US$59.4 million).

Large-cap stocks played a major role in driving the market up with the blue-chip VN30 Index rising 1.29 per cent to 851.00 points.

Twenty-five of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket advanced while only five declined.

Sixteen of the 20 sector indices ended the morning session on a positive note, including retail, banking, petroleum, consumer staple and securities, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The best-performing industry indices gained between 1.4 per and 2.9 per cent.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS