The positive movement of the Asian stock market bolstered gains of Vietnamese shares during the last trading session of the week.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.14 per cent to close at 988.91 points, marking a five-day gain of nearly 4 per cent.

The southern market index inched up 1.75 per cent to close at 987.57 points on Wednesday.

Nearly 216 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND5 trillion (US$214 million).

Large-cap stocks performed well, boosting the blue-chip VN30 Index up 0.37 per cent to 929.50 points.

Seventeen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket advanced while 12 declined, the others ended flat.

According to Reuters, shares in Asia were boosted by a late rise in Chinese stocks, with the main blue-chip index of Chinese stocks up 2.2 per cent.

Australian shares gained 0.5 per cent and Seoul’s Kospi ended up 0.1 per cent.

The positive movement of regional stock market buoyed investor sentiment, leading a strong cash flow to many large-cap stocks in the banking sector.

Gaining banks included Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB), HDBank (HDB), Techcombank (TCB) and Tien Phong Bank (TPB).

Petroleum stocks also continued rising on the expansion of oil prices.

US crude oil rose 0.3 percent to $57.14 a barrel. Brent crude was up nearly 0.2 per cent at $67.18.

Local gaining energy stocks included PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW).

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 0.66 per cent to end at 106.82 points.

The northern market index climbed 0.18 per cent to end at 106.11 points on Wednesday.

Nearly 37 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND534 billion.

Foreign investors today bought a net VND61.07 billion on HOSE, focusing on dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (VND57.99 billion), consumer staple Masan Group (MSN) (VND39.08 billion) and Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) (VND37.37 billion). In addition, they bought a net VND8.75 billion on the HNX.

The UPCoM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) was up slightly 0.03 per cent to close at 55.55 points.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), market sentiment continued to be optimistic.

Investors should cautiously observe and take advantage of price increase sessions to gradually reduce the proportion or restructure the portfolio in the context that the market was maintaining an uptrend.

However, unclear information from the US-China trade negotiations would increase market risk, BSC said. — VNS