Vietnamese shares advanced on Monday morning as investor confidence got higher in large-cap stocks for their earnings prospects.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 1.28 per cent to close at 945.33 points. It rose total 2.6 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange inched down 0.04 per cent to end at 107.57 points. The northern market index soared nearly 5 per cent in the previous week.

More than 137 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND2.74 trillion (US$121.7 million).

Financial-banking and real estate industries continued to lift the markets on expectations for better-than-expected earnings reports in the second quarter of the year.

The banking, insurance and real estate industry indices gained between 1.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Those were also among the 16 sectors on the stock market that saw share prices up with others such as energy and mining, retail and plastic production.

Large-cap stocks also performed well as the VN30 Index that tracks the performance of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation added 1.53 per cent to 940.72 points.

Twenty-four of the 30 largest stocks in the VN30 basket made gains, including Sacombank (STB), budget carrier Vietjet (VJC), brewer Sabeco (SAB), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and petrol firm Petrolimex (PLX).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS