Vietnamese shares fell sharply on Friday morning, dragged down by low investor confidence in the prospects of global stocks.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange lost 0.96 per cent to close at 954.25 points.

The southern market index dropped 0.56 per cent on Thursday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange slipped 0.69 per cent to end at 107.17 points.

The northern market index was down 0.55 per cent in the previous session.

More than 102.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND2.15 trillion (US$95.5 million).

The budget issue in Italy, tension between the US and Saudi Arabia, and the escalation of China-US trade tensions shook the world’s markets on Thursday night.

The decline of global stocks had negative impacts on the Vietnamese market on Friday morning, pulling investor confidence down.

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 275 to 98 on both local exchanges.

On a sector basis, petroleum, financial-banking, retail, and food and beverage were among the worst-performing industries.

Large-cap stocks also ended in the negative territory as the large-cap VN30 Index slid 1.08 per cent to 927.44 points.

Among the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket, 28 declined while only one was up.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS