Shares increased on the HCM Stock Exchange on Wednesday, driven by banks and real estate firms.

The benchmark VN Index was up 0.52 per cent to close at 854.76 points. It gained total 2 per cent in the previous three sessions.

Nearly 94.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2.57 trillion (US$114.4 million).

The southern exchange was boosted by the good performance of bank and real estate shares. Five of the seven listed banks on the HCM City’s exchange advanced, including MBBank (MBB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV).

The two bank stocks rose 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.

Others like Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and VPBank (VPB) increased between 0.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, Vingroup (VIC) remained the stock that lifted the whole real estate sector. It jumped 4.5 per cent on Tuesday morning.

Large-cap stocks also performed well, with the VN30 Index that tracks the movement of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity up 0.42 per cent to 849.57 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index inched up 0.06 per cent to end at 104.89 points. It fell 0.25 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 25.4 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND289.6 billion.

The afternoon trade session starts at 1pm. — VNS