Vietnamese shares steadied on Thursday morning, driven by material and consumer sectors.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.11 per cent to 898.49 points.

The VN-Index gained total 0.97 per cent in the previous four straight days.

Consumer and material sectors lifted the market in the morning trade.

The two industry indices were up 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and steel maker Hoa Phat (HPG) were among the best gainers in the two sectors.

Pharmaceutical and medical and banking stocks also performed well to support the market.

By market value, the large-cap tracker VN30-Index rose 0.28 per cent to 836.84 points.

The mid-cap and small-cap trackers also gained 0.27 per cent and 0.29 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased by 0.69 per cent to 128.75 points.

The northern market index slid 0.05 per cent on Wednesday.

Nearly 234 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VND3.82 trillion (US$165 million).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS