SSI's head office in HCM City. The securities firm's shares jumped 4.6 per cent on Thursday following its cash dividend payout plan. — Photo cafef.vn

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index advanced to 990 points on Thursday, driven by securities firms and food and beverage companies.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.35 per cent to close at 990.75 points, recovering from a 0.08 per cent dip on Wednesday.

More than 152.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND3.5 trillion (US$151.2 million).

The market was driven by strong growth in securities firms, which jumped to boost the brokerage index up 4.1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Among those were SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) which soared 4.6 per cent to end at VND22,650 per share.

Shares in the country's largest securities firm by market capitalisation advanced after the company on Wednesday announced investors would receive a 10 per cent cash dividend on October 24.

It means every shareholder will receive VND1,000 per share.

The growth of SSI shares had a positive impact on other brokerage firms such as HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), VNDirect Securities Corp (VND) and FPT Securities Corp (FTS).

The three companies were up between 2.2 per cent and 4.9 per cent.

According to VNDirect Securities Corp’s director of investment consultancy, Nguyen Trung Du, shares in brokerage firms were in the lowest range of the year.

Investor concerns about the global economic recession and its impact on the securities market were the major cause that had dragged securities shares down, he said.

Analysts said securities shares were good targets in the short term, especially when the market was quite vulnerable to external factors.

Shares in the four securities companies have fallen 20-30 per cent since mid March.

The food and beverage sector also made good gains with its index rising 1.6 per cent.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and brewer Sabeco (SAB) were the drivers in the consumer staple sector.

Other industries that also advanced included banking, retail, technology, food processing and building materials.

According to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC), investors were still cautious on Thursday despite their interest in securities stocks, so trading liquidity did not increase strongly.

Technically, the VN-Index would be supported by the 980-985 point range and would encounter strong resistance around the 990-1,000 point range, TCSC said in its daily report.

The benchmark would likely continue swinging in the current range while stocks would differentiate based on their third-quarter earnings prospects, the company added.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.92 per cent to finish at 104.77 points.

The northern market dropped 0.19 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 34 million shares were traded on the bourse, worth VND480 billion. — VNS