Vietnamese shares were steady on Monday morning, led by food and beverages, information technology (IT) and brokerage companies.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange gained 0.46 per cent to close at 1,043.75 points. It had rallied 9.5 per cent in the previous seven consecutive sessions.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange ended almost flat at 119.78 points compared to last week’s ending of 119.86 points. The northern market index had increased by 3.5 per cent last week.

Meanwhile, modest trading liquidity and negative market breadth signal a rough second-half for the market trading session in the afternoon.

More than 112 million shares, worth VND3.18 trillion (US$141.5 million), were traded on the two local exchanges, with 159 gaining stocks against 239 declining ones.

Among 20 sectors, eight saw share prices go up while 12 others were on the defensive side.

The stock market was mainly boosted by the good growth of IT, brokerage and food and beverage shares. The three industry indices were up between 0.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

On the opposite side, energy, plastic, rubber production and agriculture sectors weighed on the market sentiment. Among these, the index of plastic production plunged by 11.6 per cent.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS