Following oil and gas companies, bank stocks rose strongly on April 16’s afternoon, pushing the VN-Index up another 0.67 percent to close the session at 568.28 points.

The market condition was positive on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange as advancers outnumbered decliners by 105-85 and 118 stocks went flat.

Bank shares were the biggest gainers in the afternoon session with most large-cap lenders gaining value, including Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG) and Sacombank (STB).

PetroVietnam Drilling and Wells Service Corp (PVD) continued its uptrend, hitting the ceiling price for the second day. PV Gas (GAS) retreated to the reference price by the end of the session.

Blue chips maintained the market momentum with 19 stocks of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity. The VN30 went up by 0.73 percent in value to end at 595.09 points and liquidity also improved.

The market volume climbed 20 percent over April 15, totaling 100.5 million shares while value of trades rose 10 percent to reach 1.83 trillion VND (84.7 million USD).

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also rose to a three-week high at 83.40 points, up 0.44 percent over April 15's close.

Trading was a respectable 52 million shares worth 729.5 billion VND (33.5 million USD), up 20 percent in value over the previous session.

KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Co (KLF) reclaimed the most active stock position with 4.3 million shares traded, ending flat at 8,800 VND a share.

Continuous foreign buys also supported the market as they picked up a total of 357 billion VND (16.5 million USD) worth of shares on the two markets, almost tripling their net buy value seen on April 15.-VNA