A Vietcombank transaction office in Hà Nội. Shares of the lender led the market on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo

Vietnamese markets extended gains and ended higher on Tuesday, mainly due to rises in banking industry shares.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index rose 15.23 points, or 1.21 per cent, to close the trading session at 1,269.79 points, marking the second consecutive increase for the index.

Throughout most of the day, the VN-Index traded above the reference level, maintaining a relatively stable range and closing the session higher.

The market's breadth was positive, with gainers outnumbering losers by 227 to 88. Liquidity on the southern bourse increased by 6.6 per cent to VNĐ13.9 trillion (US$550.6 million), with a trading volume of 528 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks, climbed 10.58 points, or 0.82 per cent, to 1,296 points. Twenty-six ticker symbols in the VN30 basket edged up, while four inched down.

Data compiled by financial news site vietstock.vn showed that cash was moving into banking stocks.

The biggest gainer was the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB), with shares of the lender up 2.44 per cent, contributing nearly three points to the VN-Index overall gains.

It was followed by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), up 4.21 per cent, the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (CTG), up 0.94 per cent, the Liên Việt Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LPB), up 6.09 per cent and the HCM City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDB), up 4.33 per cent.

Other large-cap stocks that performed well included Hòa Phát Group JSC (HPG), which increased by 1.23 per cent, Vinhomes JSC (VHM), up 1.19 per cent and the Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), which rose by 0.87 per cent.

Limiting the rallies, some big stocks still faced slight sell-offs, such as FPT Corporation (FPT) which posted a decline of 0.47 per cent, Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPB) down 0.26 per cent and Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VRE) which lost 0.69 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also finished higher on Monday. It rose 0.94 per cent, to 240.8 points.

During the session, more than VNĐ1 trillion worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 50 million shares, were moved on the northern market.

Foreign investors significantly cooled their net selling. Specifically, they sold a net VNĐ36 billion on HoSE on Tuesday, a very small net sell compared to previous trading sessions.