Vietnamese shares advanced on Friday morning, driven by growth in the real estate and energy sectors.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.77 per cent to close at 960.88 points. It rose 0.08 per cent on Thursday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 0.69 per cent to end at 106.39 points. The northern market index inched up 0.09 per cent in the previous session.

More than 135 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND3.16 trillion (US$140.5 million).

Property developers and energy firms pushed the Vietnamese stock market up in the morning session. The two industry indices jumped 3.12 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Gaining real estate stocks included Sacomreal JSC (SCR), Vingroup (VIC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Hoa Binh Corp (HBC), which increased between 1.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent.

Among energy stocks that performed well were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Mud Drilling (PVC) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD).

In addition, financial-banking stocks went up to support the market such as MBBank (MBB), Sacombank (STB), VPBank (VPB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), HCM City Securities (HCM) and Viet Capital Securities (VCI).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS