Hanoi (VNA)♚ - Vietnamese shares rose slightly on November 12 on both local exchanges, ending a four-day losing streak, as local bank stocks inched up following a positive assessment from Fitch Ratings.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.3 percent to close at 605.58 points and the Hanoi Stock Exchange's HNX Index gained 0.7 percent to end at 81.07 points. The VN Index lost 1.9 percent and the HNX Index lost 1.7 percent in the previous four days. The US-based credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on November 12 said that Vietnamese banks still have a high ratio of non-performing loans since they have only sold a small amount of bad loans to the Vietnam Asset Management Corporation (VAMC). However, Fitch Ratings pointed out that on the positive side that the growth rate of new non-performing loans in Vietnamese banks had slowed as guaranteed assets had been handled well, the Government allowed foreign investors to raise their ownership in local companies, the real-estate market had shown some signs of recovery and the country had seen stable macroeconomic growth in recent years. As a result, the banking sector index inched up 0.5 percent, led by gains in the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB). These bank stocks rose 0.9 percent, 1.5 percent, 1.4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. In addition, the national stock market was lifted by positive quarterly performances such as Ocean Group JSC (OGC) and Binh Minh Plastic JSC (BMP). OGC was the most active stock on November 12 with nearly 19 million shares traded and surged 6.9 percent after the company on November 11 reported a quarterly pre-tax profit of 1.58 trillion VND (70.5 million USD), most of which came after Ocean Group sold its entire capital in Blue Star Company. Meanwhile, BMP was up 2.5 percent after the company recorded a net profit of 114.77 billion VND (5.1 million USD), an increase of 44 percent from the same period of last year. The national stock market also received support from some other large-cap stocks such as Vinamilk (VNM) and FPT Corporation (FPT), from which the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) plans to sell its ownership. By the end of the day, VNM gained 1.5 percent and FPT jumped 5 percent. The two local bourses traded more than 186 million shares, worth 3.03 trillion VND (134.9 million USD), an increase of one-third from November 11.-VNA