Vietnamese shares advanced on Thursday morning, driven by banks and financial stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.81 per cent to close at 933.41 points.

The VN-Index was down 0.34 per cent on Wednesday.

Nearly 114 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2 trillion (US$86 million).

Financial and banking stocks led the market upturn on Thursday morning.

The banking, brokerage and insurance sector indices gained between 0.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Among the biggest gainers were lenders Sacombank (STB), HDBank (HDB) and Vietinbank (CTG), HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), SSI Securities Corp (SSI) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH).

Other sectors that also saw shares grow included mining and energy, technology, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, rubber, plastics and chemicals, and seafood processing.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added nearly 2.0 per cent to end at 105.22 points.

The northern market index had increased by a total of 1.85 per cent in the previous two trading days.

Nearly 19.5 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth nearly VND198 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS