Indices inched higher on Wednesday morning, buoyed by an improvement in risk appetite with the market benchmark VN-Index breaking over 1,300 points.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index climbed 19.79 points, or 1.53 per cent, to 1,311.14 points.

The market breadth returned to the positive zone, with 385 stocks increasing, while only 62 stocks declined.

Liquidity, however, decreased over the previous session. Accordingly, more than 335.3 million shares were traded on HoSE, worth nearly VNĐ9.6 trillion (US$412.9 million).

The index's rallies were mainly driven by a higher risk appetite, lifting many large-cap stocks. The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, rebounded this morning, up 17.83 points, or 1.35 per cent, to 1,342.2 points.

Twenty-six stocks in the VN30 basket moved higher, with two registering the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent, Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Sacombank (STB). Only four stocks slid.

Supporting the uptrend, many bank stocks also recorded strong performances this morning, including BIDV (BID), MBBank (MBB), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), Sahabank (SHB) and Vietinbank (CTG), all adding at least 2 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index advanced in the morning trade, up 6.11 points, or 2.01 per cent, to 310.26 points.

Foreign investors continued to net buy on two main exchanges in the morning session with a total value of nearly VNĐ98 billion. VNS