HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares gained ground on Friday as investors continued looking for opportunities in firms with high chance of better-than-expected earnings reports while improved sentiment on global markets provided some support.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange was up 0.49 per cent to close at 902.71 points. The southern market index has increased by total 1.72 points in the last three trading days.

The VN-Index has gained total 2.47 per cent for the whole week and ended positively on four out of five trading days of the week.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange inched up 0.09 per cent to end at 101.87 points, bouncing back from a 0.35 per cent drop on Thursday.

The northern market index has advanced total 1.01 per cent in the week with alternate ups and downs during five trading days.

Expectations for listed firms’ full-year earnings reports continued to drive the market sentiment up and helped the market end the last trading day of the week on a positive note, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its daily report.

Investors were advised to keep tracking the companies with high prospects of releasing better-than-expected earnings statements for 2018, BSC said.

The sectors that lured investors’ attention on Friday included securities, consumer staples, insurance-finance, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Those sector indices gained between 0.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and food and beverage firm Masan (MSN), the two largest consumer staple firms by market capitalisation, were respectively up 1.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent.

Vinamilk on Thursday announced its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 rose 5.3 per cent year on year to more than VNĐ13 trillion (US$560 million) and its post-tax profit jumped 30 per cent to VNĐ2.28 trillion.

Among securities stocks that advanced were MB Securities (MBS), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), VNDirect Securities (VND) and BIDV Securities (BSI).

The market sentiment was also supported by the rallies of global stocks on hopes China and the US will soon resolve their bilateral trade disputes to boost global trade, and on the potential of a slower US rate hike plan in 2019, according to Artex Securities Corporation.

“However, the short-term uptrend of the market is uncertain if trading liquidity remains modest” on lack of investment and the rise of profit-taking, the company added.

More than 157 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ3.2 trillion (US$137.15 million).

According to Trần Minh Hoàng, market analysis director at Vietcombank Securities Corp, the market has lacked the momentum to climb higher in the short run as investors seem unwilling to buy in on local stocks currently. — VNS