The market inched higher on Tuesday morning on strong gains of oil, gas and coal stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index rose 4.66 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 1,329.65 points. However the market's breadth was still negative with 213 stocks declining, while 163 stocks increased.

The liquidity, meanwhile, improved compared to yesterday's morning trade. Of which, investors poured nearly VND10.6 trillion (US$464 million) into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 384.8 million shares.

The index's recovery was driven by some large-cap stocks, especially in the energy sector.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a gain of 3.1 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 1,442.3 points. Of the VN30 basket, 14 stocks jumped, while 11 slid and five stayed unchanged.

PetroVietnam Gas (PVGas, GAS) led the market's recovery this morning, up 5.11 per cent. Other energy stocks witnessing big gains were PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) and Petrolimex (PLX), with PVD shares even hitting the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent.

Also supporting the benchmark were Masan Group (MSN), up 3.63 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB), up 0.92 per cent and Hoa Phat Group (HPG), up 0.79 per cent.

Meanwhile, the downward trend still weighed on the market with many pillar stocks posting losses of more than 1 per cent like VPBank (VPB), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Becamex (BCM).

On Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also edged 0.2 per cent higher this morning to 353.73 points. The gain was also boosted by energy stocks such as Vinacomin - DeoNai Coal JSC (TDN), Vinacomin - Vang Danh Coal JSC (TVD) and Vinacomin - Mong Duong Coal JSC (MDC). VNS