Vietnames stock market edged higher on Thursday morning on surging shares of securities sector.

The VN-Index in the Ho Chi Minh Stock exchange rose 0.61 per cent to close the morning trade at 886.53 points.

More than 227.3 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VND3.3 trillion (US$142.1 million).

The index had gained 0.73 per cent to close Wednesday at 881.17 points.

A strong cash flow poured into the securities stocks have pushed the sector up by 4.6 per cent, with notable gainers of Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Ho Chi Minh Securities Corp (HCM), VNDirect Securities Co (VND), Vietinbank Securities Co (CTS) and Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Co (SHS).

Local stocks were also boosted by investor confidence after US stocks moved positive in overnight trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.05 per cent to 26,269.89, the S&P 500 gained 1.36 per cent to 3,122.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.78 per cent to 9,682.91.

Large-cap stocks performed well on Thursday morning as their tracker VN30-Index was up 0.36 per cent to close at 827.28 points, with 21 of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity gaining.

On a sector basis, 18 out of 25 sectors posted gains such as retail, securities, banking, energy, food and beverage, logistics, information and technology, real estate, agriculture, home appliance production, construction and insurance.

In the opposite side, losers were rubber production, seafood processing, construction materials and healthcare.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 0.42 per cent to close Thursday morning at 116.98 points.

Nearly 50 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND617 billion. — VNS