Shares rose higher on Friday morning, boosted by strong gains in large-cap stocks, especially bank stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index inched up 8.92 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 1,494.89 points.

The market's breadth remained negative as 183 stocks increased and 263 stocks declined, while liquidity was higher than the previous session.

Investors poured over VND15.6 trillion (US$686.6 million) into the southern bourse, equivalent to 536.4 million shares.

However, foreign investors were net sellers on HoSE with a value of VND26 billion.

The index's uptrend was driven by large-cap stocks with the 30 biggest stocks tracker, the VN30-Index, posting a gain of 14.08 points, or 0.93 per cent, to 1,533.7 points.

Of the VN30 basket, 21 stock rose while seven stocks slid and two remained flat.

BIDV (BID) was the biggest gainer this morning, up 5.65 per cent. It was followed by Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Vinamilk (VNM), Vietinbank (CTG) and Techcombank (TCB), up in a range of 1.5 - 2.51 per cent.

Other bank stocks supporting the uptrend were VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), MBBank (MBB) and Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index was also up 0.36 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 462.01 points. VNS