A Coteccons building project. The firm's shares fell 1.9 per cent on Thursday morning. — Photo coteccons.vn

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index advanced on Thursday morning, driven by energy firms on the increase of oil prices.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was up 0.22 per cent to end at 1,014.95 points.

The benchmark index fell 0.55 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 92 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.77 trillion (US$76.2 million).

Energy and petroleum stocks boosted the southern market index up following a strong rebound of oil prices on Wednesday night.

Brent crude gained 0.8 per cent to end Wednesday at $62.54 a barrel.

On the Vietnamese stock market, PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) rose 1.8 per cent, PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) edged up 0.6 per cent.

Other sectors that also performed well included healthcare and pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, wholesale and utilities.

On the opposite side, investors were quite cautious with the current market conditions as capital kept flowing out of all three large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap indices.

The three group indices lost between 0.02 per cent and 0.11 per cent on Thursday morning.

Weighing down the market were large-cap firms Mobile World Investment Corp (MWG), Coteccons Construction (CTD), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched down 0.13 per cent to close at 107.06 points.

The northern market index was up total 0.41 per cent in the previous two days.

Nearly 14 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND150 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS