The market opened the last trading day of the week on a negative note as many big stocks faced selling pressure.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined by 0.39 per cent in the morning session to 1,169.85 points. The market breadth turned negative with 235 stocks going down, while 164 stocks climbed.

The negative result was due to losses of many big stocks.

The VN30-Index, which measures the strength of 30 biggest stocks in the HoSE, decreased by 0.82 per cent to finish the morning session at 1,178.23 points. In the VN30 basket, twenty-four stocks slid and only three rose.

Stocks across all sectors dropped in the session after surging in Thursday's afternoon session.

The top three dominating the market trend were Vietcombank (VCB) down 0.98 per cent, PetroVietnam GAS JSC (GAS) down 1.78 per cent and Vingroup JSC (VIC) down 0.82 per cent. Energy stocks in the utilities sector outperformed other stocks yesterday morning.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HXN-Index also fell 0.08 per cent to 230.78 points. The HXN30-Index declined by 0.04 per cent to 352.87 points. VNS