The market fell on Tuesday morning, weighed on by sharp declines of energy and seafood stocks.
The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) continued down. It finished the morning trade at 1,191.03 points, down 4.5 points, or 0.38 per cent.
The market's breadth was negative, while liquidity jumped compared to the previous session.
Accordingly, over VND6.5 trillion (US$279 million) worth of shares, equal to a trading volume of nearly 275 million shares, was traded on the southern market.
Strong selling pressure hurt investors sentiment this morning, causing big losses in energy and seafood stocks.
However, the VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, still gained 0.62 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 1,248.99 point.
In the VN30 basket, 12 stocks increased, while 15 slid and three were unchanged.
PV Gas (GAS) led the downtrend this morning, posting a decline of 3.68 per cent. Other energy stocks weighing the downside were PV POWER (POW), down nearly 1.5 per cent, PetroVietnam Power Nhon Trach 2 (NT2), down 5.62 per cent, and Vinh Son - Song Hinh Hydropower, (VSH) down nearly 5 per cent.
Seafood stocks also witnessed great losses, including Vinh Hoan Corporation (VHC) down 4.23 per cent and Cuu Long Fish JSC (ACL) down 5.06 per cent.
Meanwhile, losses were cushioned by gains in bank stocks with many big names up at least 2 per cent like BIDV (BID), Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTB), MBBank (MBB) and Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index dropped 2.08 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 279.11 points. VNS