Investors at ACB Securities Company. The benchmark VN Index inched down 0.08 per cent to close at 842.00 points on Thursday morning. — Photo thanhnien.vn

Shares dropped on the HCM Stock Exchange on Thursday morning as stocks were hit by intraday profit-taking after the market gained in the early period.

The benchmark VN Index inched down 0.08 per cent to close at 842.00 points. It gained 0.65 per cent on Wednesday.

The benchmark index increased as much as 0.8 per cent before declining on profit-taking pressure.

More than 91.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2 trillion (US$91 million).

Market breadth was negative with 154 declining stocks, 105 gaining stocks and 38 others ending flat, proving investor sentiment was quite poor, at present.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, narrowed its gain to 0.02 per cent from nearly one per cent, ending at 835.56 points.

Among decliners in the VN30 basket were DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), Kinh Bac City Development Corp (KBC), digital retailer Mobile World (MWG) and logistics firm Gemadept (GMD).

Blue chips such as Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and Sacombank (STB) also underperformed.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index lost another 0.51 per cent to end at 104.44 points. It declined by total 1.4 per cent in the previous three sessions.

More than 29 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND408.6 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS