Vietnamese shares advanced on Wednesday despite investors’ profit-taking as overall market sentiment remained positive about the possibility of resolving China-US trade tensions.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.30 per cent to close at 982.15 points. It has rallied a total of 2.16 per cent in the last five sessions.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange finished Wednesday at 109.99 points, little changed from its previous ending of 110.02 points.

More than 242.5 million shares were transferred on the two trading bourses, worth nearly VND5.1 trillion (US$226.6 million). These figures increased slightly compared to Tuesday’s numbers.

Large-cap stocks performed well to boost the stock market with the blue chip VN30 Index gaining 0.46 per cent to 959.63 points.

Fourteen of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket made gains, including logistics firm Gemadept (GMD), FLC Faros Construction (ROS), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and Sacombank (STB).

On the sector basis, the insurance industry performed best as its index jumped 3.5 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the opposite side, banks, securities firms and plastic producers were among the worst declining industries, losing between 0.9 per cent and 1 per cent.

According to BIDV Securities JSC (BSC), the market was mainly supported by positive investor sentiment as they showed confidence in that US-China trade tensions would be resolved.

Global markets also traded in the positive territory on expectations that trade talks between China and the US this week would ease trade tensions.

Investors also seemed calm despite the US central bank Fed was likely to raise interest rates in September, BIDV said.

Another factor that cushioned market sentiment was leading rating agency Moody’s forecast that Viet Nam’s economy would maintain its strong growth over the next four years at the annual rate of 6.4 per cent, Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) said in a report.

Foreign investors remained net buyers, posting VND30 billion worth of net buy value on Wednesday. They net-sold VND144.3 billion on Tuesday.

According to BVSC, the VN Index has surpassed the 980-point level with strong volatility, proving that it would consolidate before rising to the old peak of 1,000 points.

The VN Index stayed above the 980-982 zone during the session but weakened in the last minutes, indicating that potential selling pressure in this zone may force the index to retreat in the coming sessions, BVSC said. — VNS