Vietnamese shares advanced on Tuesday morning, driven by petroleum firms boosted rising oil prices.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.22 per cent to close at 985.07 points.

The VN-Index fell 0.96 per cent on Monday.

Nearly 108 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2.27 trillion (US$98 million).

Petroleum firms drove the market up in the morning session, lifted by the growth of oil prices.

Brent crude gained 0.5 per cent to trade at $59 a barrel while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 0.6 per cent to trade at near $54 a barrel.

PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) was up 0.7 per cent and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) increased by 2.5 per cent.

Other large-cap companies also performed well, pulling the VN30-Index up 0.29 per cent to 895.03 points.

Nineteen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity on the southern bourse advanced.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index advanced 0.38 per cent to end at 103.20 points.

The northern market index was down 0.43 per cent on Monday.

Only 6.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND141.4 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS