Việt Nam’s benchmark VN-Index extended its rally for a third straight day, driven by banks and petroleum firms on third-quarter earnings prospects.–VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam’s benchmark VN-Index extended its rally for a third straight day, driven by banks and petroleum firms on third-quarter earnings prospects.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged up 0.32 per cent to close on Thursday at 1,023.62 points.

The southern market index has gained total 1 per cent in the last three trading days.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange extended growth for a second session, rising 0.85 per cent to end at 116.27 points.

The northern market index has made up a two-day increase of total 1.1 per cent.

More than 239.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ5.46 trillion (US$242.7 million).

Foreign investors were net sellers with a net sell value of VNĐ393 billion. They net-sold VNĐ47.7 billion worth of local stocks on Wednesday.

Large-cap stocks performed well with the blue-chip VN30 Index gaining 0.30 per cent to reach 993.61 points at the end of the day.

In the VN30 basket, 19 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advanced while seven declined.

Petroleum firms, banks, retailers, seafood processors and building contractors were the major driving factors of the stock market.

Their industry indices were up between 0.6 per cent and 1.9 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The banking sector was driven by strong growth of Military Bank (MBB), which jumped 3.9 per cent.

MBB has gained substantially by total 4.8 per cent in two straight sessions.

Vietcombank on Friday will auction 53.4 million Military Bank shares at the initial rate of VNĐ19,641 apiece.

Other bank stocks that also made gains included Techcombank (TCB), TPBank (TPB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).

TPBank has reported its pre-tax profit in the first nine months reached VNĐ1.6 trillion, double the figure recorded in the same period of last year.

Petroleum stocks were supported by global expectations that US sanctions on Iran, one of the world’s leading oil exporters, will cushion oil prices in the long term.

Such expectations helped lifted Brent crude and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) by 0.14 per cent and 3.7 per cent on Wednesday.

Among local energy shares that advanced were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnam Mud Drilling Corp (PVC).

“The market breadth was positive with more gainers than losers” and it indicated “cash flows are strongly running into the market.” Bảo Việt Securities JSC (BVSC) said in its daily report.

It is clear that “investors are more optimistic about the market’s uptrend in the short term” and their focus now would shift to the sectors with brighter nine-month earnings prospects, including banking, petroleum, securities and consumer goods, BVSC added. – VNS