Vietnamese shares rose on Wednesday, propped up by a slew of banking stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index increased 0.40 per cent, to 985.59 points.

The benchmark had closed Tuesday at 981.65 points, a 0.66 per cent increase.

More than 583 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to VND10.4 trillion (US$418.2 million).

Market breadth was positive with 178 losers and 245 gainers.

Banking stocks were darlings of the market with gainers including Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Viet Nam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB), Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

The 30 biggest stock tracker VN30-Index decreased 0.04 per cent, to end at 979.68 points.

“Although cash flow tends to catch low prices and support the market's recovery, in general, selling pressure was still quite overweighed in many stocks. At the same time, the demand for high prices is still cautious. Market support is not yet clear and it’s likely that the market will fluctuate in the next trading session to test supply and demand, especially in the group of stocks that are suffering the great selling pressure,” said Viet Dragon Securities Co.

“Therefore, investors still need to closely observe the movement of cash flow and temporarily limit chasing. If the supporting cash flow continues to increase and absorb the current large selling pressure, then we can consider buying and accumulating stocks with good fundamentals and deep discounts.”

Gainers in the VN-30 group were FPT Corporation (FPT), Masan Group (MSN), and Khang Dien House (KDH), Phu Nhuan Jewelry (PNJ), Sabeco (SAB), Vinhomes (VHM) and Mobile World Group (MWG).

In the basket, 18 stocks climbed, and 11 dropped.

On a sector basis, 20 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market gained ground, including insurance, oil and gas, banking, wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, real estate, food and beverage, retail and healthcare.

Losers, meanwhile, included seafood production, construction materials, securities, and plastic and chemical production.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index grew 0.81 per cent to end Wednesday at 201.39 points.

The northern market index had closed Tuesday at 199.77 points, a gain of 0.61 per cent.

Some 44.4 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND678 billion. — VNS