Traders at Tan Viet Securities Corp (TVSI). Vietnamese shares advanced on Tuesday morning on the back of bank stocks. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares advanced on Tuesday morning, driven by financial firms.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged up 0.36 per cent to close at 987.06 points.

The VN-Index fell 0.57 per cent on Monday.

Nearly 123.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.86 trillion (US$80.2 million).

Banks drove the market up in the morning session.

The banking sector index gained 1.2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG) and Military Bank (MBB) were the strongest gainers.

The four bank shares were up between 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent.

Other sectors that also saw stocks increase were realty, agriculture, building materials, and wholesale.

On the negative side, mining and energy, insurance, plastics and chemicals, and seafood processing were among the sectors that weighed on the market.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.16 per cent to end at 104.18 points.

The northern market index lost 1.39 per cent on Monday.

Nearly 20.9 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND256 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm.  VNS