Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index suffered from weak market sentiment on Friday morning though petrol and financial-banking stocks advanced strongly. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Despite strong gains in the petroleum, banking and insurance sectors, Viet Nam’s benchmark VN- Index still ended Friday morning in negative territory.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.41 per cent to close at 922.98 points.

The southern market index also dropped 0.37 per cent on Thursday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, however, gained 0.42 per cent to end at 104.61 points.

The northern market index inched up 0.07 per cent on Thursday.

Banks, petroleum firms and insurance companies were among the gaining stock groups with their sector indices growing between 0.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent.

But that could not offset weak market sentiment caused by investor concerns about the market’s short-term prospects.

Weak sentiment led to low trading liquidity with more than 94 million shares being traded on the two exchanges, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$84 million).

The market breadth was also negative with 208 declining stocks and 152 gainers, while 117 ended flat.

Large-cap companies underperformed and pulled the blue-chip VN30 Index down 0.48 per cent to 893.28 points.

Among the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket, 17 declined including steel producer Hoa Sen (HSG), property developer Vingroup (VIC) and consumer firm Masan (MSN).

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS