HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares gained steadily on Thursday, driven by positive investor confidence that lifted financial-banking and energy stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 0.92 per cent to close at 1,004.74 points.

The southern market index has increased by a total of 1.73 per cent in the last three sessions.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was up 0.75 per cent to end at 115.06 points.

The northern market index has risen 2.04 per cent in the past three days.

Nearly 262 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ5.8 trillion (US$257.3 million).

Market conditions were positive with 265 stocks gaining, 167 declining and 126 ending flat.

The financial-banking and energy sectors remained the driving factors for the market’s rally on Thursday.

The banking, insurance, brokerage and energy sector indices gained between 0.5 per cent and 1.8 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The financial-banking industries were driven by Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB), Vietinbank (CTG), PetroVietnam Insurance (PVI), HCM City Securities (HCM) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

According to Bảo Việt Securities JSC (BVSC), financial-banking stocks are expected to produce better-than-expected earnings reports for the third quarter of the year.

“These stocks are expected to boost the market in the short term,” BVSC said in its daily report.

Investor confidence in banking stocks was also lifted after news site Bloomberg on Thursday reported the World Bank’s International Finance Corp (IFC) planned to offload its entire stake in Vietinbank.

Vietinbank shares (CTG) on Thursday advanced 2.4 per cent to end at VNĐ27,450 per share.

Petroleum stocks such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) continued to benefit from rising oil prices.

Brent crude was up 0.42 per cent to $79.73 a barrel, totalling three-day growth of 2.15 per cent.

Other industries that also saw share prices up included rubber and plastic production, seafood processing and construction materials.

The VN-Index successfully surpassed the 1,000-point mark thanks to growing investor sentiment, which helped hike capital flowing into the market, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS) reported.

The Vietnamese stock market would likely shake up on Friday – the last trading day of the week – as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will complete the restructuring of their investment portfolios, SHS said.

However, the VN-Index will extend its rally because purchases from investors have remained good in recent days and the benchmark index is forecast to rise to 1,020-1,025 points over the weekend, SHS added. — VNS