Vietnamese shares advanced on Wednesday morning as banks and securities firms continued to progress on hopes for good earnings reports.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was up 0.38 per cent ending at 990.06 points.

It inched down 0.09 per cent on Tuesday.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 0.34 per cent to close at 106.65 points.

The northern market index edged down 0.03 per cent on the previous trading day.

More than 112 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth VND2.23 trillion (US$96 million).

Bank and brokerage stocks were the driving factors in early trading as investors placed their hopes on those companies to deliver good earnings reports for the second quarter.

The two sector indices were up 0.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent, according to data on vietstock.vn.

Gainers among banks included the Military Bank (MBB), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and VP Bank (VPB).

Among securities firms, Vietnam Investment Securities (IVS), VNDirect Securities (VND) and HCM City Securities (HCM) were among those that had the best growth.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS