The momentum of appreciating share prices continued at Vietnam's stock exchanges for the fourth consecutive day, with banking and real estate shares serving to prop up the increase.

The bank shares include Eximbank (EIB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, Military Bank and Saigon-Hanoi Bank, as well as Kinh Bac Urban City, Becamex and Tan Tao.

However, the slump of several speculative stocks and blue chips adversely affected the momentum and served to curb it somewhat. The shares include An Phu Irradiation, Cat Lai Port, Ca Mau Seafood Processing and Phu My Fertiliser, as well as Thong Nhat Production and Investment and property developers Dat Xanh, Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment.

The banking stocks' strong rally is expected to revive the entire market for the remainder of the year.

The return of foreign investors as net buyers of shares collectively worth 117 billion VND (5.49 million USD) from both bourses served as another positive signal.

At the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index increased by 0.61 percent to 578.38 points. But trading value declined slightly compared with that of December 3 to 1.8 trillion VND (84.5 million USD) on a total volume of 108.4 million shares.

Blue chips that the VN30 Index tracked ended mixed, with 15 gainers, 10 losers and five stocks remaining unchanged. Notably, EIB continued to hit its ceiling price. The VN30 Index finished at 624.31 points, a 0.8-percent increase.

At the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased by 0.21 percent to 88.75 points. Liquidity improved to 819.7 billion VND (38.48 million USD) and 62.2 million shares.

The HNX30 Index, which tracks the performance of the top 30 shares in capitalisation and liquidity, increased by 0.65 percent to 178.43 points.-VNA