The market extended gains on Thursday morning, boosted by blue chip stocks.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) rose 3.51 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 1,462.84 points.

Market breadth was positive with more stocks increasing, while liquidity improved compared to the previous session. Over 402.7 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth nearly VND12.2 trillion (US$531.5 million).

The benchmark index's rally was driven by gains in large-cap stocks, especially in bank and real estate stocks. The VN30-Index, tracking 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, climbed nearly 4 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 1,476.65 points.

Seventeen stocks of the VN30 basket edged higher this morning, while eight declined and five remained unchanged.

Vietinbank (CTG) was the biggest gainer during the session, leading the uptrend with a rise of 2.34 per cent.

Supporting the index, Vietcombank (VCB), MBBank (MBB), Vinhomes (VHM), Vincome Retail (VRE) and Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG) also reported good performance, up in a range of 0.61-1.44 per cent.

However the rally was limited by losses in commodities stocks as steel, fertiliser and oil & gas stocks faced strong sell-offs. Of which PV Gas (GAS) lost the most, down 1.37 per cent.

It was followed by Petrovietnam Fertiliser & Chemicals Corporation (DPM) and Petrovietnam Ca Mau Fertiliser JSC (DCM), down 6.81 per cent and 6.85 per cent, respectively. Nam Kim Group (NKG) also posted a loss of 3 per cent this morning.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index increased by 1.52 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 447.7 points. VNS