A Coteccons construction site. The company shares declined by 4.7 per cent on Thursday morning. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Vietnamese shares dipped on Thursday morning as poor sentiment kept weighing on the large-cap sector.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange fell 0.86 per cent to end at 852.30 points, extending losses from a two-day decline of total 1.33 per cent.

Large-cap stocks underperformed to drag the market down.

The blue-chip tracker VN30-Index lost 0.90 per cent to 794.42 points with 25 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity falling.

Among decliners in the large-cap basket were construction firm Coteccons (CTD), HDBank (HDB), Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC), consumer staples firm Masan (MSN), and Vietcombank (VCB).

On an industry basis, real estate, retail, banking, mining and energy, construction, and food and beverage were also the worst-performers.

Mid-caps and small-caps also declined, pulling their trackers down 0.72 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was down 0.52 per cent to 113.11 points.

The northern market index had fallen total 1.44 per cent in the previous three trading days.

More than 220 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VND2.7 trillion (US$115.8 million).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS