Shares struggled on Thursday morning, digesting the previous session's huge rebound as investors remained concerned about the lasting economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. — Photo cafef.vn

Shares struggled on Thursday morning, digesting the previous session's huge rebound as investors remained concerned about the lasting economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange increased 0.74 per cent to close the morning trade at 695.33 points.

The southern market index gained 4.71 per cent to close the session at 690.25 points, its largest one-day percentage gain in eight years.

But this morning, investors may be disappointed to learn that mega one-day rallies witnessed on Wednesday are obviously not the start of a durable recovery.

More than 100.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ1.9 trillion (US$81.3 million).

Twenty-two of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket dropped to weigh on the market.

Large-cap decliners included Techcombank (TCB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Mobile World Group (MWG), Vietjet (VCJ), Novaland (NVL), VPBank (VPB) and Military Bank (MBB).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 1.56 per cent to close Thursday morning at 98.52 points.

The northern market rose 3.24 per cent to close Wednesday at 100.09 points.

Nearly 27.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ207 billion.

The afternoon trading session begins at 1pm. — VNS