Shares rose for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, backed by strong cash flow pouring in oil and bank stocks.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) rose 0.23 per cent to close at 1,134.62 points.

The market’s breath was in the positive zone, with gainers outnumbering losers by 218 to 183.

More than 807 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth 17.2 trillion (US$724 million).

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also finished higher, up 0.16 per cent, to end at 1,129.76 points.

In the VN30 basket, 16 stocks inched up, while 14 went down.

Financial news site cafef.vn said many oil and gas stocks attracted cash flow and gained strongly, including PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), PV Power (POW), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PV OIL (OIL), Binh Son Refinery (BSR) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS).

Banking stocks moved in contradictory paths. Gainers in the basket included Vietcombank (VCB), Vietnam International Bank (VIB), VPBank (VPB), Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB), Vietinbank (CTG), and Bank for Investment and Development (BID).

Meanwhile, losers were HDBank (HDB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Techcombank (TCB) and Tien Phong Bank (TPB).

“Liquidity improved significantly with cash flow spreading to many industry groups. VN-Index closed the session higher, showing that the market's momentum and inertia remained. The support area is extended to around 1,125 points of VN- Index and the market may retest the previous peak of around 1,140 points," said Viet Dragon Securities Co.

“Therefore, investors still need to observe the supply and demand movements to assess the effort of cash flow. For the time being, it is still possible to hold stocks that are showing good technical signals from the accumulation base. However, for stockghat are still under selling pressure from the resistance zone and have not performed well recently, investors should consider taking profit or reducing the weight to rebalance the portfolio,” the company said.

“The market continued the recovery and maintained the high price level in the session. In general, the cash flow is still trying to support the market. It is expected that the market will aim to retest the previous peak around 1,140 points. Therefore, investors still need to observe the supply and demand movements to assess the effort of cash flow.”

“For the time being, it is still possible to hold stocks that have good technical signals from the accumulation base. However, for stocks that are still under selling pressure from resistance zone and have not performed well recently, they should still consider taking profit or reducing the weight to rebalance the portfolio,” it said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index finished lower at 227.75 points. It lost 0.44 per cent.

During the sessions, investors poured nearly VND1.4 trillion into the northern exchange, equal to a trading volume of more than 90.3 million shares. — VNS