Vietnamese shares remained positive on Monday morning, driven by petroleum and real estate companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was up 0.42 per cent to end at 1,021.36 points.

The southern market index gained total 1.41 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange edged up 0.30 per cent to close at 116.63 points.

The northern market index increased by total 0.41 per cent in the previous trading week.

More than 153.4 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND3.1 trillion (US$137.5 million).

Petroleum and real estate stocks were the major driving factors for the stock market on the first trading day of the week.

Gainers among petroleum firms included PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) and PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS).

The property sector was driven by growth of Vingroup (VIC), Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corp (KBC) and Nam Long Group (NLG).

Listed firms in the two sectors are expected to release higher-than-expected earnings reports for the third quarter of the year on rising oil prices and increasing purchase of real estate projects.

Other industries that also contributed to the advance of the stock market were banking, construction materials and agriculture, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS