Shares ended on a positive note for a second day on the HCM Stock Exchange on October 30 as energy firms and some construction companies continued to perform well.

Investors perform stock transactions at ​Saigon Securities Inc’s office in Hanoi

The benchmark VN Index added 0.57 percent to close at 845.20 points. The southern market index has gained total 1.8 percent over the last two sessions.

More than 197 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth 4.5 trillion VND (200.5 million USD).

Trading figures posted an increase of 37.6 percent in volume and 31.6 percent in value compared to October 27.

The market breadth was negative as the number of declining stocks doubled that of gaining ones by 187 to 93, while 39 other stocks ended flat.

The VN30 Index that tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity edged up 0.31 percent to 837.52 points.

FLC Faros Construction Corp (ROS) was the stock that pushed the whole market up, hitting its daily increase limit of 7 percent.

Other large-cap stocks that also made gains included PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN) and brewer Sabeco (SAB).

Brewer Sabeco has reported roughly 2.1 trillion VND in profit for the third quarter, raising its combined profit for the first three quarters to 3.54 trillion VND.

Sabeco saw its third-quarter profit up 11 percent year on year, however, its nine-month profit was almost flat compared to the same period last year.

Shares of Sabeco rose 2.3 percent to 287,000 VND per share on October 30.

PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and other energy stocks also recorded good gains on October 30 after crude prices remained positive on the day. Brent crude added 0.23 percent to trade at 60.58 USD a barrel, extending its growth since October 19.

The cash flow continued to focus mostly on large-cap stocks and shares of listed companies that had good third-quarter earnings reports and it was the main force driving the VN Index up despite the market trading condition continued to be dominated by declining stocks, Saigon-Hanoi Securities Co (SHS) said in its daily report.

In addition, net foreign buy value on the HCM Stock Exchange also helped boost the market’s overall morale, SHS said. Foreign investors on October 30 posted a net buy value of 205 billion VND compared to October 27's net sell value of 9.3 billion VND.

Such trading conditions suggested the benchmark index could fall back to the range of 840-843 points as investors would take their cautious stance to wait for better opportunities, the company added.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index fell 0.45 percent to end at 105.98 points. It gained 0.13 percent on October 27.

More than 42.3 million shares were exchanged on the northern market, worth 585.6 billion VND.-VNS/VNA