A Phu Nhuan Jewellery JSC shop. The company's shares rose 2.5 per cent on Wednesday morning, the strongest of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. — Photo pnj.com.vn

Vietnamese shares advanced on Wednesday morning, driven by large-cap companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange increased by 0.33 per cent to close at 954.34 points.

The VN-Index rose 0.50 per cent on Tuesday.

Nearly 74 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.46 trillion (US$63 million).

Large-cap shares remained upbeat and extended their gains from Tuesday to cushion the market.

The large-cap VN30-Index rose 0.42 per cent to end at 867.94 points.

Nineteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket advanced while 10 declined.

Those 19 large-caps gained between 0.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent.

Among gainers were Phu Nhuan Jewellery JSC (PNJ), Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB) and IT firm FPT Corporation (FPT).

On a sector basis, petroleum, real estate, retail and securities sector indices were among the best performers.

The four sector indices rose between 0.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added 0.43 per cent to end at 103.50 points.

The northern market index inched down 0.22 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 10.5 million shares were exchanged on the Ha Noi market, worth VND135.6 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS