Shares slid on Thursday morning as market fluctuated amid strong selling pressure.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 1.01 per cent to end the trading session at 1,056.18 points.

More than 440.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ9.4 trillion (US$407.5 million).

Market breadth was negative with 136 gainers and 280 decliners.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was up 1.65 per cent to 1,029.72 points.

Twenty-three of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket increased while three decreased.

Banking stocks suffered strong selling pressure. The worst performers in the group included Bank for Investment and Development (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), HDBank (HDB), VPBank (VPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

Other pillar stocks also lost ground such as Vietjet dropping 2.6 per cent Hoa Phat Group losing 2.4 per cent, Vingroup (VIC) declining 2 per cent and Vincom Retail (VRE) falling 1.8 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.05 per cent to end Thursday morning at 171.71 points.

More than 70 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ720 billion. — VNS