The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was down 0.15 per cent to close at 898.68 points. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Local shares struggled on Thursday morning amid the large divergence of blue-chips.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was down 0.15 per cent to close at 898.68 points.

The index closed Wednesday up 0.06 per cent at the three-month high of 900.00 points.

Nearly 308 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth VND4 trillion (US$172.8 million).

The stock market struggled with large diversity in prices of pillar stocks.

The blue-chip tracker VN30-Index was up 0.23 per cent to close at 837.22 points. 

Twenty-one of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity declined while 5 increased.

Among gainers in the large-cap basket were Masan Group (MSN), Vingroup (VIC), Vinamilk (VNM), Vinhomes (VHM).

On the other side, struggling stocks included Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), FPT Corporation (FPT), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietjet (VJC), VPBank (VPB), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Mobile World Group (MWG).

The minor HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.41 per cent to end at 121.18 points.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS