Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnameseshares ended the first trading session of the week (January 8) on a positivenote as financial-banking, energy and rubber sectors led the market upturn onexpectations for good earnings reports.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 1.01 percent to close at1,022.90 points after having posted total growth of 2.9 percent last week.

The minor HNX Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange was up 1.81 percent to finishat 121.08 points. It gained total 1.8 percent last week.
More than 335.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth 8.23trillion VND (366 million USD).

The trading figures posted an increase of 17.4 percent in volume and 17.5 percentin value compared to last week’s average daily numbers.

Gaining stocks slightly dominated the market trading condition against losingones by 248 to 238 while 100 other stocks ended flat.

“Investors were still optimistic about the market’s uptrend as positiveinvestor confidence was proven by the trading liquidity that remained higherthan the average of the last 21 sessions and by a gainer-based market tradingstatus,” analysts at Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) said in the dailymarket report.

Positive investor sentiment was bolstered by expectations that listed firmswould deliver good earnings reports for the fourth quarter and whole year of2017, the analysts said.

“Much of the investment on Monday focused on large-cap stocks, especiallybanks,” they said, adding that could cause a strong mixed market trading amonglocal stocks.

Of the 20 sectors on the stock market, banking scored the highest growth rateof 3 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

All 11 bank stocks listed on both local exchanges saw share values rise withSacombank (STB) recording the strongest growth of 7 percent.

Sacombank has announced its preliminary report for 2017 in which the full-yearincome rose one-third year on year to 8.2 trillion VND.

The bank also resolved 19 trillion VND worth of non-performing loans andreduced its NPL ratio to 4.28 percent at the end of 2017 from 6.68 percent inlate 2016.

The performance of Sacombank in 2017 also sparked investors’ hope for Eximbank(EIB) to repeat similar results. EIB was up 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the top-three Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID)advanced 1.6 percent after reporting a record-high pre-tax profit of 8.8trillion VND, which beat the shareholders’ forecast of 7.75 trillion VND.

Other sectors that also moved up on a similar boost included rubber production,energy, securities and insurance industries.

BVSC analysts forecast that the benchmark VN Index would continue rising to the1,030-1,050 point range, however, investors may turn their focus fromlarge-caps to mid- and small-caps stocks, causing the market to suffer somecorrections.-VNA