Vietnamese shares ended Friday on a positive note, driven by financial-banking and energy sectors as confidence was boosted by news on State capital divestment from State-owned businesses.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.52 per cent to close at 968.47 points. It recovered from a 0.29 per cent drop on Thursday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 0.57 per cent to end at 108.41 points, extending its rally to a fourth session with total growth of 2.66 per cent.

The VN-Index recorded a weekly increase of 0.92 per cent while the HNX Index advanced total 2 per cent during the week.

More than 218.5 million shares were traded on the two bourses, worth VND4.55 trillion (US$202.2 million).

Trading figures were up 5.1 per cent in volume but declined by 6.8 per cent in value compared to the previous session.

Financial-banking and energy sectors assisted the stock market to advance as insurance, securities, banking and energy industry indices grew between 2.2 per cent and 4 per cent.

Among financial-banking stocks that moved up were Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), VNDirect Securities (VND) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has recently told the Vietnam M&A 2018 Forum that the Government would sell parts of its stakes in some State-owned banks and financial firms.

The Government also welcomed private firms and foreign investors to participate in the restructuring of the banking-financial sector, Hue said.

That was attributed to the strong growth of the three large-cap State-owned financial institutions BID, VCB and BVH on Friday.

Energy stocks that increased strongly were PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS), and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), which jumped 5.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively.

The State-owned conglomerate National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam or PVN) was reported to have submitted a plan to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on divesting from its subsidiaries by 2020, under which PVN will focus on reducing its ownership in PVD from current the 50.4 per cent to 36 per cent.

Another two large-cap energy stocks – PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) – made slight gains on the news.

Foreign selling remained a concern for the stock market as foreign investors net-sold VND37.4 billion on Friday, totalling a net-sell value of VND736 billion this week. — VNS