HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares extended gains for a third day on the two local exchanges, driven by large-cap stocks, while market trading liquidity improved on higher investor confidence.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 0.8 per cent to close at 668.48 points. The southern market index has rallied 2.6 per cent in the last three sessions.

The HNX Index on the smaller Hà Nội Stock Exchange added 0.4 per cent to finish at 83.25 points, extending its gains to 1.1 per cent over the last three days.

“Large-cap stocks were still the major factors that determined the market’s trend as investors showed an improvement in their sentiment after the exchange-traded funds finished reviewing their investment portfolios last week,” BIDV Securities Co (BVSC) wrote in its daily report.

In the sub-index VN30, which contains the 30 largest listed firms by market capitalisation and liquidity, 19 stocks advanced while nine fell.

The advancers included dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), property and retail company Vingroup JSC (VIC), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) and Sài Gòn Securities Inc (SSI), which rose by up to 2.8 per cent.

The energy sector also made improvements as crude prices bounced back from a slight fall on Tuesday. London-traded Brent crude was being traded at US$46.80 a barrel, up 2 per cent from Tuesday.

Among local energy firms, PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) and PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) increased by 2.4 per cent, 2.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.

“Stocks’ rallies were also helped by a foreign net buying yesterday after foreign investors remained net sellers in the previous 16 consecutive trading days,” BSC said.

Yesterday, foreign net buy value reached VNĐ385.72 billion ($17.1 million) on the southern bourse, the highest since the beginning of the year, while shifting from net buying status to net selling on the northern bourse with a net sell value of nearly VNĐ23 billion.

There was no change for the daily reference mid-point rate, which has been used by the central bank since early January to control trading between the Vietnamese đồng and the US dollar, with the mid-point rate flat at VNĐ21,953.

“The market’s gains also resulted in higher trading liquidity as positive economic news from both local and international markets bolstered investor confidence in Vietnamese shares,” Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co (SHS) said in a note.

About VNĐ3.83 trillion worth of more than 195.3 million shares was traded on the two local exchanges yesterday, an increase of 22 per cent in volume and 8.2 per cent in value from Tuesday. — VNS