The stock market extended losses on Friday morning due to a lingering selling force.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange fell further and moved closer to the 1,200 point-level. It ended the morning traded at 1,210.48 points, down 28.36 points, or 2.29 per cent.

The market's breadth remained negative with more than 80 per cent of stocks traded on the southern market declining. However, liquidity increased over yesterday's morning trade, of which more than 382.3 million shares were traded on HoSE, worth nearly VND10.2 trillion (US$441.5 million).

The index's downtrend was mainly driven by the sell-off force on the market, with many large-cap stocks posting poor performance.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, plunged 14.97 points, or 1.17 per cent, to 1,264.79 points.

Twenty-three stocks in the VN30 basket inched lower with one hitting the floor price, while seven climbed.

Real estate stocks led the bearish trend this morning with Vinhomes (VHM) posting the biggest loss of 4.21 per cent. Becamex (BCM), Vingroup (VIC) and Novaland (NVL) also posted big losses of 6.85, 1.52 and 1.06 per cent, respectively.

Other stocks in the banking, energy and manufacturing sectors also contributed to the general downside. Of which VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), BIDV (BID), PV Gas (GAS), Masan (MSN), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Sabeco (SAB) all lost at least 1 per cent this morning.

The HNX-Index on the northern bourse - the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) - dropped by 5.04 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 310.48 points. VNS