Vietnamese shares rose strongly on Thursday morning, boosted by investor optimism in the financial-banking, energy and real estate sectors.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 1.03 per cent to close at 942.30 points. Viet Nam’s key index grew a total of 4.7 per cent since the beginning of the week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange added 1.10 per cent to end at 110.49 points. It was up nearly 1.2 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 159 million shares were traded on both local exchanges, worth VND3.01 trillion (US$133.9 million).

Market trading condition was balanced with 202 gaining stocks, 193 losing stocks and 123 others ending unchanged on Thursday morning.

Large-cap stocks performed well as two-thirds of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation on the VN30 Index advanced, lifting the large-cap index by 1.10 per cent to 932.31 points.

The growth of blue chips also had a positive impact on other mid- and small-cap stocks. Of the 20 sectors, banking-financial companies, energy firms and property developers witnessed the highest growth.

Among these stocks, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) jumped 3.7 per cent on speculation that the bank's shares would be added to the investment portfolio of exchange-traded fund VanEck Vectors Vietnam ETF.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS