A drinker holds a bottle of Saigon beer (sabeco) at a restaurant in the Old Quarter in Ha Noi. Sabeco (SBC) gained 5.2 per cent on Thursday morning. — Photo topgreatvietnam.info

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese stock market pulled back on profit-taking by short-term retail investors on Thursday morning, after recent outperformance.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged up 0.02 per cent to close morning trading at 777.41 points.

The benchmark had totaled a three-day rally of 2.54 per cent on Wednesday.

Near;y 133.7 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$80.8 million).

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index slid 0.17 per cent to close Thursday morning at 721.60 points.

In the VN30 basket, 21 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity declined, while 8 rose. One stayed unchanged.

Right from the beginning of the session, selling force put pressure on many large-cap stocks such as VPBank (VPB), decreasing by 2.1 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG), losing by 1.8 per cent, Techcombank (TCB), down by 1.7 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB) losing by 1.4 per cent.

Other bluechips including Phu Nhuan Jewellery (PNJ), Masan Group (MSN), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) all lost more than 1.5 per cent.

On the other side, brewery Sabeco (SAB) increased by 5.2 per cent to VND161,000 per share, Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX) rose by 1.8 per cent to VND40,600 per share, helping indexes from dropping too deeply.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange moved down 0.02 per cent to close Thursday morning at 108.31 points.

The northern market index had advanced 1.10 per cent to close Wednesday at 108.33 points.

Nearly 22.4 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND258 billion. — VNS