Vietnamese shares close down in the morning session of March 29.— Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The local market experienced losses this morning due to the fall of two large caps, PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (GAS) and Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB).

After the morning session, the VN Index lost 1.97 points to close at 573.75 points in the southern bourse, while the HNX Index lost 0.27 points to end at 80.17 points in Ha Noi.

After the session, the total trading volume was 85.94 million shares, worth VND1.36 trillion, with 86 gainers and 109 losers.

Contributing the maximum to the market losses, GAS declined 2.21 per cent as oil prices fell in the Asian market following reports that Fed's reservation of oil had risen, and Barclays' warning that the prices of crude oil would slump to US$30 per barrel.

VCB fell 0.93 per cent, while the shares of giant food and drink producer Masan Group (MSN), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and FPT Corporation (FPT) also declined.

However, the pharmaceutical industry shares rose. These included Domesco Medical Import Export Joint Stock Corporation (DMC), Cuu Long Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Corporation (DCL) and DHG Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG).

In the morning, buying by foreign investors reached VND76.8 billion on the HCM Stock exchange, with the bestsellers being PetroVietnam Power Nhon Trach 2 JSC (NT2), Vingroup Joint Stock Company (VIC), Hoa Phat group (HPG) and Binh Minh Plastic Joint-Stock Company (BMP).— VNS