Customers buy life insurance products at Bao Viet Holdings (HoSE: BVH). — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Local shares fell further on Friday morning with high trading liquidity amid strong selling pressure.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped 1.41 per cent to close at 855.15 points.

The VN-Index tumbled 3.63 per cent on Thursday.

More than 427.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND5 trillion (US$214 million).

Profit taking pressure remained strong on Friday and continued dragging local stocks down.

The blue-chip VN30-Index index that tracks the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity was down nearly 1 per cent.

Eighteen of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket declined, including sugar firm Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa JSC (SBT), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), insurer Bao Viet (BVH), and HDBank (HDB).

The sub-indices of the financial-banking, agriculture, food and beverage, and seafood sectors were down between 0.9 per cent and 3 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

On the positive side, investors were hunting for cheap assets, thus picking up some stocks to cushion the market.

Gainers included Sacombank (STB), construction firm Coteccons (CTD), and tech group FPT Corp (FPT).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 1.30 per cent to end at 114.55 points.

The northern market index slumped 3.83 per cent on Thursday.

More than 55.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND517.8 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS