Vietnamese shares climbed on Friday morning as good investor confidence drove up the performance of banks, financial firms and real estate companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was up 1.22 per cent to close at 909.51 points. It rose 0.6 per cent on Thursday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange added 1.90 per cent to end at 102.35 points, extending its growth for a second session.

Market trading liquidity remained low with more than 96 million shares being traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND1.74 trillion (US$77.5 million).

Investor confidence remained positive after the US market traded well overnight on Thursday following the easing of trade tensions between the US and China.

The banking, securities, insurance, property and retail sectors were the five best-performing industries on Friday morning with their sector indices rising between 1.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent.

Large-cap stocks also had a good session as the blue-chip VN30 Index advanced 1.69 per cent to 898.80 points with 24 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation seeing prices rise.

Among gainers were Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), MBBank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) and digital retailer Mobile World (MWG).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS