Shares advanced on the HCM Stock Exchange on Monday morning, driven by foreign trading and positive impacts of APEC meetings.

The benchmark VN Index gained 0.55 per cent to close at 873.00 points, after having risen as much as 1.03 per cent during the session.

It had rallied total 4.2 per cent in the previous six sessions and increased by 2.9 per cent last week.

More than 163.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND9.65 trillion (US$428.8 million).

Market trading liquidity showed a big improvement as trading value of Monday’s morning session rose 1.6 times compared to Friday’s figure.

Much of the improvement was attributed to the foreign trading of dairy firm Vinamilk’s (VNM) shares, which boosted the shares by 3.7 per cent.

Foreign investors in the morning session exchanged more than 33.61 million VNM shares worth VND6.23 trillion via both put-through and order-matching transactions.

The week-long APEC meetings also posted positive impacts on some listed companies such as truck distributor Hoang Huy Investment Financial JSC (TCH), which hit the daily rising limit of 7 per cent.

The Vietnamese truck company on Sunday signed a $1.8 billion contract with the US-based Navistar International Corporation to import 100,000 trucks between 2018 and 2027.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was down 0.06 per cent to end at 106.31 points. It fell from a three-day increase of total 1.4 per cent.

More than 34.8 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND379 billion.

The afternoon trade session starts at 1pm. — VNS