Investors at the SHS's exchange floor. Energy stocks continued to drive VN Index down. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Vietnamese shares ended mixed on the two local exchanges this morning, while energy stocks continued to slide and pulled down the VN Index.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.1 per cent to close at 557.65 points.

Local energy companies continued to pull down the southern market, after oil prices slumped on Friday and showed no improvement during the early trading session.

American crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined by 1.2 per cent to trade at US$36.55 a barrel.

PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) fell two per cent, and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Service Corporation (PVD) slipped 3.4 per cent.

Banks also helped to pull down the southern bourse, led by Eximbank (EIB), which dropped two per cent after it suffered a loss of VNĐ817 billion (US$36.3 million) in the last two years.

Sacombank (STB) fell one per cent and Vietcombank was down 0.3 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index rebounded 0.3 per cent to end at 78.73 points.

Brokerage companies helped to lift the northern market. Among these firms, VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND) rose 0.9 per cent after it announced a buyback of five million shares.

Both local bourses traded more than 86.6 million shares, worth VND1.06 trillion ($47.4 million). — VNS