Vietnamese shares on Monday surpassed the 1,200-point mark, underpinned by steel and banking stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index increased 1.46 per cent, to 1,202.82 points.

The benchmark last week registered a weekly decrease of 2.6 per cent.

Nearly 527 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to VND12.3 trillion (US$529 million).

Market breadth was positive with 116 losers and 340 gainers.

In the banking group, most of the stocks gained ground including Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Viet Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB) and Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), and Tien Phong Bank (TPB).

Vietcombank (VCB) was the only decliner in the group.

Steel stocks also attracted cash flow with gainers including Hoa Sen Group (HSG) rising 5.3 per cent, Nam Kim Group (NKG) up 4 per cent, and Hoa Phat Group (HPG) increasing 5 per cent.

Energy stocks also performed positively with gainers such as Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD) and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

The 30 biggest stock tracker VN30-Index increased 1.72 per cent, to end at 1,256.67 points.

Gainers in the VN-30 group were FPT Corporation (FPT), Masan Group (MSN), Novaland (NVL) and Khang Dien House (KDH), Vietjet (VJC), Phu Nhuan Jewelry (PNJ), Phat Dat Real Estate (PDR) and SSI Securities Inc (SSI).

In the basket, 26 stocks climbed, and four dropped.

On a sector basis, 23 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market gained ground, including insurance, oil and gas, banking, wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, real estate, food and beverage, construction materials, securities, and healthcare.

Losers, meanwhile, included retail and plastic and chemical production.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index grew 1.63 per cent to end at 280.42 points.

The northern market index had dropped 1.5 per cent last week.

Some 49.4 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND962 billion. — VNS