HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares closed Tuesday on a positive note as large-cap stocks were boosted by expectations for better quarterly earnings and rising oil prices.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.80 per cent to close at 965.93 points, extending its rise for a third day with total growth of 2.1 per cent.

More than 186 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ5.25 trillion (US$233.4 million).

Market trading condition was balanced with 154 gaining stocks, 132 declining ones and 54 stocks that ended flat.

Large-cap stocks performed well and remained the most important factor that pulled the southern exchange up.

The VN30 Index, that tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, was up nearly 0.7 per cent to 955.73 points with 22 advancing stocks.

On a sector basis, insurance, banking, brokerage, energy, and food and beverage industries had the highest growth rate. The five sector indices advanced between 0.62 per cent and 2 per cent.

The best-performing stocks in the five sectors included Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), Sacombank (STB), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and Vietinbank (CTG).

Other sector-leading shares that also made gains were logistics firm Gemadept (GMD), PetroVietnam Power Nhơn Trạch 2 (NT2), steel producer Hoa Sen Group (HSG), digital retailer Mobile World (MWG) and FLC Faros Construction (ROS).

Foreign investors on Tuesday posted a net buy value of VNĐ154.5 billion, which was an improvement from a net foreign sell value of VNĐ75 billion on Monday.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index added 0.73 per cent to close at 114.06 points. The northern market index has increased by 0.9 per cent in total after the last two sessions.

More than 54.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ813.7 billion.

According to KIS Việt Nam Securities Corp (KIS), the benchmark VN Index is approaching the expected level of 970 points as rising oil prices and expectations for positive growth of fourth-quarter earnings reports are supporting energy stocks and other leading sectors such as banking-financial and food and beverage industries.

Brent crude on Tuesday traded at $65.10 a barrel, marking total growth of 4.3 per cent in the past two weeks. It has advanced total 45 per cent since the one-year low of $45.82 a barrel on June 21.

Investor confidence is expected to strengthen on Wednesday and in the final sessions of 2017, thus improving market liquidity, KIS said in its daily report.

However, investors should be careful with the current upward movement of the stock market as stocks could be hit by short selling, which may hit those that had recently made good gains such as energy shares, KIS warned. — VNS