Shares were mixed at closing on Tuesday morning, higher on the HCM City Exchange but lower on the northern bourse.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.21 per cent to close Tuesday morning at 927.43 points.

The benchmark rose 0.07 per cent to close at 925.53 points on Monday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 0.13 per cent to end at 105.40 points.

The northern market index lost 0.21 points to settle at 105.54 points on Monday.

Trading liquidity was low with nearly 86 million shares being traded on the two exchanges, worth nearly VND1.6 trillion (US$68.7 million).

The market was also pulled up by the rally of large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the movement of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, was up 0.16 per cent to 906.24 points.

Among gainers were Petro Vietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Vietinbank (CTG), steel maker Hoa Sen Group (HSG), brewery Sabeco (SAB), Vietcombank (VCB), Masan group (MSN) and budget carrier Vietjet (VJC), helping the market indexes remain green.

In the opposite direction, dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), VPBank (VPB), Vingroup (VIC) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) slumped and put pressure on the uptrend of the overall market.

Data from business and finance news sites showed the sectors with the worst performances were insurance, brokerage, food and beverage, and construction.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS