An investor sits in front of a stock board. Normal trading operations will resume on Thursday, February 15, 2024. — VNA/VNS Photo

Blue-chip stocks drove market gains as shares rose for the third consecutive day ahead of Lunar New Year.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) gained 0.85 per cent to close at 1,198.53 points.

The index had climbed 2.2 per cent in the last three sessions.

More than 685 million shares were traded on the southern exchange on Thursday, worth VNĐ15.5 trillion (US$634.3 million).

Market breadth was positive with 356 gainers and 110 decliners.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, rose 1.13 per cent to end at 1,212.70 points.

Oil stocks gained ground thanks to the injection of cash flow, including PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW), and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS).

Across the stock market, 24 out of 25 sectors indices gained ground, including energy, construction materials, plastics and chemical production, wholesale, insurance, securities, healthcare, food and beverage, real estate, banking, insurance, agriculture, seafood processing and construction.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.18 per cent to 231.04 points.

More than 61.5 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ1.1 trillion.

During the Lunar New Year holiday, trading on HoSE and HNX will be suspended starting from Thursday, February 8th, 2024 (the 29th day of the last month of this Lunar Calendar) until Wednesday, February 14th, 2024 (the 5th day of the first month of the next Lunar Calendar).

Normal trading operations will resume on Thursday, February 15, 2024. — VNS