A Vinamilk organic cattle farm. The firm's shares dropped 0.5 per cent on Friday morning. — Photo cafef.vn

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index fell on Friday morning as investors sought short-term profits from the index’s recent rally.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.34 per cent to close at 993.83 points.

The southern market index had gained total 3.15 per cent in seven straight days since August 13.

More than 86.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$81.5 million).

Dragging the southern market down were insurers, brokerage firms, agriculture businesses, retailers, and food and beverage companies.

Those sector indices were down between 0.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The stock market also saw large-cap firms performing poorly on Friday morning.

The blue-chip VN30-Index lost 0.30 per cent to end at 898.61 points.

Nineteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined.

Among decliners were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), Coteccons Construction (CTD) and property firm Novaland (NVL).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index ended the morning session flat at 103.50 points.

The northern market index had rallied total 1.80 per cent in the previous five trading days.

More than 11.5 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VND138.6 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS