Vietnamese shares inched up on Wednesday morning as investors sought safe investment in banks, retailers and food and beverage companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.26 per cent to close at 967.12 points.

The VN-Index had fallen a total of 3.28 per cent in three straight days since last Friday.

Shares of banks, retailers and food and beverage companies became attractive to investors on Wednesday morning.

The three sector indices gained between 0.7 per cent and 2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Investors may be looking for short-term earning opportunities in those sectors amid the uncertainty of the global markets.

The Chinese yuan broke its 11-year low early this week amid rising tensions in US-China trade relations, putting pressure on Viet Nam’s macro-economic conditions and equities market.

Large-cap stocks performed well enough to cushion the market.

The VN30-Index that tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity was also up 0.26 per cent to 868.35 points.

Fourteen of the 30 stocks in the VN30 basket advanced while 11 declined.

Worries about the uncertainty of the stock market sent trading liquidity to a modest level.

More than 137 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4.5 trillion (US$193.5 million).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased slightly by 0.16 per cent to end at 102.05 points.

The northern market index dropped a total of 2.43 per cent in the previous four days.

Nearly 15 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND211 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS