An investor at VNDirect Securities JSC’s trading house. – VNS Photo Truong Vi

Vietnamese shares gained steadily on Monday, driven by energy, retail agriculture stocks despite underperformance of the financial sector amid investors’ uncertainty.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.08 per cent to close at 969.62 points. It gained total 0.04 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange ended at 108.06 points, a slight increase from last week’s ending of 108.02 points.

The northern market index increased by total 2.66 per cent last week.

More than 212 million shares were traded on the two trading bourses, worth VND4.41 trillion (US$196 million).

The major driving factors for the stock market yesterday were energy and agriculture stocks, which benefited from an extensive growth of oil prices and positive business news.

The two industry indices gained 0.5 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn revealed.

The agriculture sector was boosted by Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and its sub-unit HAGL Agrico (HNG) after the latter announced it would raise funds for banana farms to VND976 billion from VND780 billion on expectations banana products would help improve its earnings.

HAG and HNG finished Monday up 6.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent, respectively.

Energy stocks pushing the sector included PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), which rose between 1.6 per cent and 2.1 per cent.

Brent crude edged up 0.3 per cent on Monday to trade at $72 a barrel. The world’s benchmark crude gained 1.5 per cent in two last trading sessions of the previous week.

The retail sector was driven by digital product retailer Mobile World Corp (MWG), which advanced 2.5 per cent and boosted the sector index by 1.4 per cent.

On the opposite side, financial-banking stocks weighed down market sentiment as nine of the 13 listed banks fell on selling pressure.

Among bank stocks that declined were VPBank (VPB), HDBank (HDB), MBBank (MBB) and Vietinbank (CTG). The nine bank stocks lost between 0.3 per cent and 4.2 per cent.

Foreign investors closed Monday as net sellers, posting a net sell value of VND58 billion. They net-purchased VND97 billion worth of stocks on Friday.

According to Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC), the market moved sideways amid strong volatility and the movement is expected to continue on Tuesday.

Investors were clearly cautious as they were waiting for the market’s clearer sight while it was accumulating in an unpredictable trend, BVSC said in its daily report.

“The results of exchange-traded fund (ETF) reviews will affect the market’s movements in the coming sessions” and the VN Index may have a chance to test its old peak of 980-982 points.” – VNS