HÀ NỘI — Shares closed Tuesday on a positive note thanks to the strong recovery of banking stocks.

The market declined in the first half of the trading session before reversing course and gaining in the closing minutes.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.41 per cent to close at 915.93 points.

The southern market index rose 0.36 per cent to close at 912.18 points on Monday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.05 per cent to end at 102.37 points.

The northern market index dropped 0.42 per cent to end at 102.31 points on Monday.

More than 148.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND3.2 trillion (US$136 million).

Companies in the real estate, insurance, securities, banking and food and beverage industries were among the firms that supported the market on Tuesday.

The indices for those industries increased by between 0.9 and 1.2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Banking stocks were the darlings of the market with Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Vietinbank (CTG) all soaring.

Large-cap stocks also performed well with the blue chip VN30 Index up 0.41 per cent to 872.03 points.

Of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket, 14 increased including insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Masan Group (MSN), Mobile World Group (MWG), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

So far, 519 out of 1,627 enterprises on the HSX, HNX and UPCOM have revealed their earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2018. On the HSX specifically, 165 out of 386 companies have announced their results. Thus, nearly half of all listed companies have disclosed their business results.

Bình Sơn Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR) is the company that suffered the biggest loss in the fourth quarter with a loss of more than VNĐ1.03 trillion. This disappointing result was attributable to increasing costs of goods and plunging oil prices in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Ngoc Nghia Industry - Service - Trading JSC (NNG) recorded a loss of VNĐ420 billion due to a drop of revenue and a spike of provision.

In the steel industry, Vietnam – Italy Steel Joint Stock Company (VIS), DANA - Y Steel Joint Stock Company (DNY), Da Nang Steel Joint Stock Company (DNS) and Thai Nguyen Iron And Steel JSC (TIS) experienced losses of VNĐ195 billion, VNĐ61 billion, VNĐ20 billion and VNĐ18 billion, respectively.

These losses were caused by declining steel prices amid an increase in management expenses.

Market growth in 2018 was still 24.36 per cent higher than in 2017.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the entire market still recorded strong growth in Q4/2018 and in 2018 as a whole. 2019 may witness a slight slowdown.

“However, the VN-Index still moved on concerns about the market’s slide and declining liquidity,” BVSC said. “Apparently, with strong fundamental supports, the Vietnamese stock market is still full of potential for investors.”

The market is forecast to keep increasing in the next session. However, the index will rise amid a wide divergence among stock groups. Investors can engage in short-term trading as the market retreats, according to BVSC. — VNS