Outside of the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX). Trading liquidity depleted on Thursday morning for the Vietnamese stock market with only 10 million shares traded on HNX. - Photo vneconomy.vn

Vietnamese shares slightly declined on Thursday morning amid depleting liquidity due to market caution.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.13 per cent to end at 950.01 points.

The VN-Index has lost total 2.9 per cent since April 26.

More than 67 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.39 trillion (US$60 million).

Market caution was the main cause for the depletion of liquidity as investors waited for US-China trade talks later in the day.

Large-cap stock VN30-Index rose 0.06 per cent to stand at 873.32 points with 13 gaining stocks out of the 30 largest ones by market capitalisation increased.

Insurance, petroleum, technology and agriculture were among the worst-performing industries.

Their sector indices fell between 0.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the opposite side, rubber, food and drinks, seafood processing and pharmaceuticals were among gainers.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index decreased by 0.14 per cent to close at 105.76 points.

The northern market index had gained total 0.46 per cent in the previous two trading days.

Nearly 10 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND103.5 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS