Shares closed Tuesday morning on a positive note on both local markets, lifted by banks and real estate firms.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.51 per cent to end at 883.81 points, recovering from an intraday low of 874.74 points.

It had rallied total 5.5 per cent in the previous seven sessions.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 0.92 per cent to finish at 107.77 points, extending its gain from a four-day increase of 1.9 per cent.

More than 160 million shares were traded across the two exchanges, worth VND6.29 trillion (US$279.7 million).

Bank and property shares were the main driving factors that pushed both local indices up on Tuesday morning.

The two sector indices posted growth rates of 1.6 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively, according to vietstock.vn.

Nine of the 10 listed banks advanced with Vietinbank (CTG), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and VPBank (VPB) performing the best.

In the real estate sector, gaining stocks included Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation (HQC).

However, the trading condition was negative as declining stocks dominated the market over gaining ones (212 to 199).

Among the decliners on the stock market were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).

The afternoon trade session starts at 1pm. — VNS