HÀ NỘI – Shares rose on both local markets on Friday following a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC exporters on extended oil output cuts and expectations for good fourth-quarter earnings reports.

The benchmark VN Index gained 1.09 per cent to close at 960.33 points, rebounding from a fall of 0.23 per cent on Thursday.

The VN Index has increased by total 2.6 per cent this week and nearly 14.7 per cent in the last one month.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange added 0.67 per cent to end Friday at 115.49 points, totaling a three-day rise of 3.6 per cent.

The northern market index gained 4.2 per cent on a weekly basis and has advanced 9.8 per cent since the end of October.

More than 301.3 million shares were traded on local bourses on Friday, worth VNĐ6.27 trillion (roughly US$278.9 million).

Gaining stocks outnumbered losers by 270 to 167, while151 others were unchanged.

Energy, brokerage, and food and beverage stocks were major lifts for the stock market on Friday as the first two sector’s indices posted a growth rate of 1.6 per cent each while the latter jumped nearly 4 per cent.

Shares of energy firms made gains after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC exporters on Thursday agreed a deal to extend production cuts until the end of 2018.

The news boosted US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) by 0.8 per cent on Friday to trade at $57.84 a barrel. WTI crude has gained modestly by 0.9 per cent since Wednesday.

Energy shares, along with brokerage and food and beverage stocks, were also the centre of attention on Friday as investors placed high expectations for those companies to release good fourth quarter earnings reports, according to VPBank Securities Company (VPBS).

VPBS said in a note that investors would seek opportunities in safe assets and offer stable growth at the moment with high prospects for good earnings during the end of 2017 and early 2018 such as brokerages, food and beverages, and energy.

Among those gainers were Viet Dragon Securities (VDS), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS), MB Securities (MBS), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and food producer Masan (MSN). – VNS