HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares suffered their biggest daily percentage drop in almost four months as new COVID-19 cases stoked concerns that new restrictions could derail the economic recovery.

Two new cases of COVID-19 community transmission were confirmed in Đà Nẵng and nearby Quảng Ngãi Province Sunday evening.

This takes the country’s tally to 420 and the number of active cases to 55.

The latest infections also raise the number of community transmissions in the past few days to four, the first of which broke Việt Nam's 99-day streak with no community transmission of the novel coronavirus.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 4.8 per cent to close the morning trade at 789.38 points.

A total of 262.4 million shares worth VNĐ3.9 trillion (US$170 million) were traded on the southern bourse.

The large-cap VN30-Index slumped 4.71 per cent to 735.93 points.

Pillar stocks reported sharp losses such as Vietinbank (CTG), FPT Corporation (FPT), HDBank (HDB), Military Bank (MBB), Masan Group (MSN), Phu Nhuan Jewelry (PNJ), PVPower (POW), Sabeco (SAB), Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), Vinamilk (VNM), VPBank (VPB), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vietjet (VJC).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also decreased 4.61 per cent to end at 104.29 points. — VNS