Vietnamese shares advanced for a fourth straight day as oil and gas stocks were boosted by a jump in oil prices overnight.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.70 per cent to close at 996.74 points.

The VN-Index has rallied total 2.83 per cent in four straight days since last Thursday.

More than 231.4 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth VND4.48 trillion (US$192.6 million).

The market sentiment improved in the afternoon trading session to boost the benchmark higher from the reference line.

All three indices that watch stocks by their market value and trading liquidity increased.

The large-cap VN30-Index was up 0.42 per cent, the mid-cap VNMID-Index rose 0.54 per cent and the small-cap VNSML-Index inched up 0.07 per cent.

The growth rates indicated investors were highly interested in large-cap and mid-cap stocks.

Leading the benchmark VN-Index up were PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), which jumped 3.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent each.

The strong growth of energy stocks was attributed to soaring oil prices on Monday night trade.

Brent crude rocketed 14.4 per cent to end at US$68.90 a barrel following an attack on a key oil facility of Saudi Arabia.

Securities firms, agricultural companies and consumer goods suppliers were among the sectors that made strong gains.

Individual large-caps that also helped boost the market included Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), residential real estate firm Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup’s construction arm Coteccons (CTD), food producer Masan (MSN) and dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM).

According to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC), large-cap stocks still played the key role in driving the market upward and market sentiment remained positive during the day.

As the VN-Index had re-approached the 1,000 point level, which has remained a strong resistance in the past few months, the stock market may encounter strong profit-taking when investors tried to lock in their profits, the brokerage firm said in its daily report.

In addition, the market sentiment in the next few days may get bumpy ahead of the US central bank Fed’s meeting to see how the US monetary policy would be directed while foreign exchange-traded funds in the Vietnamese market would complete reviewing their portfolios this week, TCSC said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index ended almost flat at 102.23 points. The northern market finished Monday at 102.21 points.

The HNX-Index has gained total 2.26 per cent in the last five days since last Wednesday.

However, its growth has slowed down this week to nearly zero per cent daily, signalling the northern market may have run out of gaining momentum.

More than 31.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND464.7 billion. – VNS