Financial-banking stocks were the worst hit by a strong selling pressure on Wednesday morning trade. — Photo tapchitaichinh.vn

Vietnamese shares declined on Wednesday morning as financial-banking stocks returned to negative territory amidst strong profit-taking pressure.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was down 0.50 per cent to close at 1,147.46 points. It gained 0.42 per cent on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange fell 0.22 per cent to end at 133.95 points after rising 0.70 per cent in the previous session.

Low trading liquidity continued on the stock market with more than 114.6 million shares being traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND3.14 trillion (US$139.8 million), proving investor confidence was quite low.

Large-cap stocks underperformed as the large-cap VN30 Index dropped 0.65 per cent to 1,123.01 points with 19 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation going down.

Financial-banking stocks were the worst hit by a strong selling pressure. The banking, insurance and brokerage sector indices were down between 0.5 and 0.9 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Among the decliners were Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Sacombank (STB), BIDV Insurance Co (BIC) and Bao Minh Insurance Co (BMI), as well as Bao Viet Securities (BVS) and VNDirect Securities (VND).

Other sectors that also saw share prices decline included energy, food and beverages, retail and rubber production.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) inched up 0.04 per cent to 59.35 points. It advanced 0.5 per cent on Tuesday.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS