Local shares struggled to stay positive on Tuesday morning with brokerage firms leading the gains.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.03 per cent to end at 871.50 points.

The VN-Index rose 0.31 per cent on Monday.

Brokerage stocks led the market uptrend as the securities sector index soared 5.7 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Leading companies in the brokerage sector advanced such as SSI Securities (SSI), HCM City Securities (HCM), VietCapital Securities (VCI) and VNDirect Securities (VND).

The four largest brokerage firms increased between 3.8 per cent and 6.3 per cent on earnings report expectations.

Technology, mining and energy, plastics and petrochemicals, consumer staples, and construction sectors also performed well.

On the opposite side, seafood producers and “Vin” companies weighed on the market.

The seafood industry index dropped 0.5 per cent and the real estate sector index lost 1.4 per cent.

Property heavyweights like Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE) declined between 0.6 per cent and 2 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index advanced 0.74 per cent to close Tuesday morning at 115.58 points.

The northern market index decreased by 0.55 per cent on Monday.

More than 278.7 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VND3.65 trillion (US$158 million).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS