Inside a VietinBank office in Hà Nội. The bank shares surged 6.9 per cent on Monday. - VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Hùng

HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares started the third quarter on a positive note as expected as investors were upbeat on ratified trade deals and expectations for quarterly earnings reports.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange rose 1.65 per cent to close Monday at 965.61 points.

It was also the strongest daily growth for the VN-Index since March.

The VN-Index gained 0.72 per cent on Friday but lost total 1 per cent last week.

More than 166.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.88 trillion (US$166.8 million).

The market sentiment was lifted after two deals on free trade and investment protection were signed between the Vietnamese Government and the European Union on Sunday, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS) said in a note.

The deals are expected to help Vietnamese exporters tap EU markets with total 500 million people and consumption of $18 trillion. Vietnamese exporters will enjoy a 99 per cent cut in tariffs by 2026.

In addition, talks between the US president Donald Trump and China’s president Xi Jinping ended positive last weekend.

The two largest economies agreed to continue discussing trade issues to ease tensions that have been going on since June 2018.

Positive signals from trade relations helped boost the sectors that are driving Việt Nam’s export-oriented economy.

Textile and garments, footwear, wood production and seafood processing gained strongly as the companies were expected to increase exports to EU markets.

Property development, retail, construction and logistics also benefited from the deals as more EU companies would enter Việt Nam to expand their businesses.

In addition, energy stocks progressed as they were driven by higher oil prices after the Organisations of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) signalled further production curbs.

The news clearly had a good impact on investors’ confidence and they were hoping for a strong recovery of the stock market in the short term, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

In the next few weeks, listed companies will deliver their quarterly earnings reports and the earnings season would support the market’s short-term uptrend, the stock brokerage added.

Focus now would shift to companies such as banks, retailers, technology firms, and textile and garment producers, TCSC said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index ended up 0.56 per cent to finish Monday at 104.09 points.

The northern market index was up 0.53 per cent on Friday. But it totalled a weekly loss of 1.28 per cent.

More than 29 million shares were exchanged in Hà Nội’s market, worth VNĐ362 billion. – VNS