Vietnamese shares gained ground on Wednesday morning, driven by insurance-finance and rubber industries.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged up 0.27 per cent to close at 984.80 points.

The VN-Index rose nearly 1 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 86.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$82.3 million).

Insurance companies, stock brokers and rubber producers helped lift the market on Wednesday morning.

The three industry indices gained between 1.4 per cent and 2.0 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Other sectors that also performed well included seafood processing and utilities.

On a negative note, selling pressure emerged in banking, technology, food and beverage, retail and real estate.

Shares in those sectors had increased sharply in recent weeks on expectations that Viet Nam will benefit from the recent signing of a trade deal with the EU and for earnings season.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased 0.92 per cent to end at 106.83 points.

The northern market index inched up 0.22 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 27 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND424.5 billion.

Afternoon trading starts at 1pm. — VNS