Vietnamese shares ended the first trading session of the week on a positive note as financial-banking, energy and rubber sectors led the market upturn on expectations for good earnings reports.— Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares ended the first trading session of the week on a positive note as financial-banking, energy and rubber sectors led the market upturn on expectations for good earnings reports.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.01 per cent to close at 1,022.90 points after having posted total growth of 2.9 per cent last week.

The minor HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was up 1.81 per cent to finish at 121.08 points. It gained total 1.8 per cent last week.

More than 335.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ8.23 trillion (US$366 million).

The trading figures posted an increase of 17.4 per cent in volume and 17.5 per cent in value compared to last week’s average daily numbers.

Gaining stocks slightly dominated the market trading condition against losing ones by 248 to 238 while 100 other stocks ended flat.

“Investors were still optimistic about the market’s uptrend as positive investor confidence was proven by the trading liquidity that remained higher than the average of the last 21 sessions and by a gainer-based market trading status,” analysts at Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC) said in the daily market report.

Positive investor sentiment was bolstered by expectations that listed firms would deliver good earnings reports for the fourth quarter and whole year of 2017, the analysts said.

“Much of the investment on Monday focused on large-cap stocks, especially banks,” they said, adding that could cause a strong mixed market trading among local stocks.

Of the 20 sectors on the stock market, banking scored the highest growth rate of 3 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

All 11 bank stocks listed on both local exchanges saw share values rise with Sacombank (STB) recording the strongest growth of 7 per cent.

Sacombank has announced its preliminary report for 2017 in which the full-year income rose one-third year on year to VNĐ8.2 trillion.

The bank also resolved VNĐ19 trillion worth of non-performing loans and reduced its NPL ratio to 4.28 per cent at the end of 2017 from 6.68 per cent in late 2016.

The performance of Sacombank in 2017 also sparked investors’ hope for Eximbank (EIB) to repeat similar results. EIB was up 7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the top-three Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) advanced 1.6 per cent after reporting a record-high pre-tax profit of VNĐ8.8 trillion, which beat the shareholders’ forecast of VNĐ7.75 trillion.

Other sectors that also moved up on a similar boost included rubber production, energy, securities and insurance industries.

BVSC analysts forecast that the benchmark VN Index would continue rising to the 1,030-1,050 point range, however, investors may turn their focus from large-caps to mid- and small-caps stocks, causing the market to suffer some corrections. — VNS