Vietnamese shares had a good start on Monday morning with the two main stock indices rising, but the upward trend was weakened significantly towards the closing minutes.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was up 0.22 per cent to close at 911.70 points. It gained 1.25 per cent last Friday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange added 0.39 per cent to end at 102.92 points, extending its growth of 2.07 per cent last Friday.

Market trading liquidity remained low with more than 98 million shares being traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND1.73 trillion (US$75 million).

The market rally was weakened at the end of the morning session as the cash flow did not show any signs of recovery. Many large cap stocks such as Petro Vietnam Gas JSC (GAS), brewery Sabeco (SAB), Techcombank (TCB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and property developer Vinhomes (VHM) were dragged down below the reference prices.

Among small- and mid-cap stocks, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (HAG) hit the daily limit rise of 7 per cent and was unmatched bought 3.3 million shares. However, the selling force on HAG was quite large, resulting in 8.8 million shares matched.

The banking, insurance, property and retail sectors were the five best-performing industries on Monday morning with their sector indices rising between 0.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent.

Large-cap stocks also had a good session as the blue-chip VN30 Index advanced 0.66 per cent to 905.42 points.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS