Vietnamese shares truggled to advance on Thursday morning on the back of large-cap companies. - Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Vietnamese shares struggled to end Thursday morning session on a positive note, driven by large-cap companies.

The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.21 per cent to close at 898.89 points.

The southern market index gained 1.08 per cent on Wednesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was flat at 102.16 points. It gained 0.86 per cent to end Wednesday at 102.16 points.

More than 79.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND1.4 trillion (US$60 million).

Large-cap stocks were the driving force of the stock market on Thursday morning as the blue chip VN30 Index rose 0.36 per cent to 858.61 points.

In the VN30 basket, 20 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advanced while eight declined.

On the sector basis, petroleum, insurance, rubber, agriculture and seafood processing stocks performed well in the morning session.

Those industry indices were up between 0.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS