A bank teller of Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), wearing a mask, helps a customer make a transaction. BID rose 1.15 per cent on Thursday. — Photo the courtesy of BID

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares extended gains on Thursday on upbeat global market sentiment amid hopes of a potential coronavirus vaccine supply deal.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock exchange rose 0.96 per cent to end the session at 855.05 points.

It had risen 0.46 per cent to end Wednesday’s session at 846.92 points.

More than 256.2 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ4.5 trillion (US$195 million).

Market breadth was positive with 294 gainers and 95 decliners.

Asia’s stock markets followed Wall Street upwards on Thursday after information that the US government has entered an agreement with drugmaker Moderna Inc to acquire 100 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 per cent on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin also announced Tuesday that Russia had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing.

More than 100 possible COVID-19 vaccines are being developed around the world. At least four are in final Phase III human trials, according to the World Health Organization’s data.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company, news related to the production of a vaccine is expected to support the market in the short term.

On the Vietnamese stock market, the blue-chip index VN30, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, rose 0.85 per cent to end Thursday at 795.09 points.

Twenty-six of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the large-cap basket increased while two decreased.

Vietnamese oil and gas stocks performed well with gainers including PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Power Corp (POW), and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS).

Besides the petroleum industry, financial stocks also grew well with notable gainers including Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG), HDBank (HDB), VPBank (VPB), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) and insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.66 per cent to end Thursday session at 116.87 points.

The index had lost 0.17 per cent to end Wednesday at 116.10 points.

Nearly 65.9 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ989  billion.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ129.25 billion on the HOSE. They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ23.99 billion.— VNS