An investor looks at stock prices on a smartphone at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 

The VN-Index gained 1.08 percent to close Tuesday at 1,132.55 points, with blue chips driving gains. 

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 277 stocks gain and 166 lose. Total trading volume rose marginally over the previous session to VND16.22 trillion ($702.15 million).

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s largest caps climbed 1.14 percent, with 19 stocks gaining and 9 losing.

In this group, three blue chips in the Vingroup family led gains. VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, went up 1.6 percent; and its two subsidiaries, VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail and VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes went up 5.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively. Together, these three tickers contributed to a rise of 4.7-point on the VN-Index, according to data from brokerage VNDirect

The other best performers this session included MBB of mid-sized state-run Military Bank, up 5 percent, FPT of IT services firm FPT, up 4.2 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, 2.3 percent, and SBT of agricultural exporter TTC-Sugar, with 1.9 percent.

Private banks were mostly in the green. HDB of HDBank added 2.7 percent, STB of Sacombank 0.9 percent, VPB of VPBank 0.4 percent and TCB of Techcombank, 0.2 percent. EIB of Eximbank kept its opening price.

Oil and gas sector also turned in a positive performance. GAS of energy giant PetroVietnam Gas gained 1.4 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power 0.7 percent and PLX of gasoline distributor Petrolimex with 0.4 percent.

In the opposite direction, ROS of construction firm FLC Faros topped losses with 2 percent, followed by VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air, 0.8 percent, and PNJ of jewelry retailer Phu Nhuan Jewelry with 0.5 percent.

The red side of the board saw the presence of two major state-owned lenders, BID of BIDV and CTG of VietinBank, which shed 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent respectively, while the third, VCB of Vietcombank, added 0.3 percent.

The HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid-and small-caps, added 0.9 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Companies Market gained 0.31 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers to the tune of over VND510 billion on all three bourses, with buying pressure mostly on VRE of Vincom Retail and the FUEVFVND, an exchange traded fund replicating the performance of stocks on the VN Diamond Index.