HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares were saved yesterday during the late period as higher oil prices helped raise energy firms and steelmakers advanced on expectations for good third-quarter performance reports.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.2 per cent to finish at 682.36 points after falling 1.9 per cent in the previous two trading days.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange covered some early losses during intraday trading to close at 84.54 points, slightly down from Monday’s closing level, and marked the third losing day of 1.7 per cent in total.

“Market sentiment was buoyed by the news that Russia said it was willing to co-operate with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to limit production at the current level and called for similar action from other non-OPEC countries,” BIDV Securities Co (BSC) wrote in its daily report.

Positive signals from Russia helped boost crude prices on Monday and lifted Vietnamese oil and gas producers.

London-traded Brent crude rose 2.3 per cent to finish Monday at US$53.14 a barrel and US crude West Texas Intermediate jumped 3.1 per cent to close at $51.35 a barrel.

In the energy sector, familiar names such as PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corp (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) took turns to lead the market up.

GAS surged 6.7 per cent, PVD jumped 3.3 per cent and PVS gained 2.8 per cent.

“The willingness shown by Russia and OPEC members for an output freeze at the moment may support oil prices in the short term,” Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC) said in a note.

Steelmakers also advanced following a series of poor trading sessions after the largest producer Hòa Phát Group (HPG) reported a revenue of VNĐ8.3 trillion ($368.9 million) and an after-tax profit of VNĐ1.6 trillion for the third quarter of this year, BVSC said.

With the latest results, Hòa Phát Group has accomplished 85 per cent of this year’s targeted revenue and 145 per cent of this year’s targeted after-tax profit. Positive business results helped lift HPG by 6.9 per cent yesterday.

The strong advance of HPG also spread to other steel producers such as Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Việt Nam-Italy Steel JSC (VIS) and Nam Kim Steel JSC (NKG), which added between 0.9 per cent and 4.9 per cent on expectations that those companies would perform as well as HPG.

Natural rubber producers such as Phước Hòa Rubber JSC (PHR) and Đồng Phú Rubber JSC (DPR) also rose as rubber prices on the global exchange increased.

More than 185 million shares were traded across the two local exchanges worth VNĐ3.5 trillion, a quarter higher than Monday’s trading value. — VNS