Investors at VNDirect Securities Corporation's head office in Hà Nội. — Photo thuonggiaoonline.vn

Vietnamese shares inched down during Wednesday morning's session, dragged by the decline of large-cap companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange slid 0.16 per cent to close at 952.49 points.

The VN-Index dropped 0.77 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 210.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4 trillion (US$175 million).

Large-cap stocks continued weighing on the market’s development as the VN30-Index lost 0.23 per cent to stand at 865.47 points.

Sixteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined while nine increased.

Those decliners included property firm Vinhomes (VHM), HDBank (HDB), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Novaland (NVL).

Steel companies were still affected by the US decision to impose a 456 per cent tariff on Vietnamese steel products.

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks were also brought down.

The Vietnamese stock market is undergoing the year-end period, in which investors have tried to escape from local assets and preserve cash ahead of the holiday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index decreased by 0.54 per cent to end at 102.35 points.

The northern market index dipped 0.31 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 30.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND247 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS