A Bao Minh Insurance office. Insurers, banks and securities firms were the major cause of the market decline on Friday morning. — Photo baodautu.vn

Vietnamese shares slid on Friday morning, dragged by financial-banking companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange fell 0.48 per cent to close at 983.14 points.

The southern market index had lost more than 2 per cent in the previous two days.

More than 103 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2.13 trillion (US$91.6 million).

Financial-banking stocks weighed on the market in the morning session.

Those companies included banks, securities firms and insurers.

The three sector indices were down between 0.4 per cent and 1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Among decliners were Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), SSI Securities (SSI) and Bao Minh Insurance (BMI).

Other under-performing sectors included agriculture, mining and energy, construction and seafood processing.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.50 per cent to end at 104.22 points.

The HNX-Index was down 0.7 per cent in the previous two trading days.

More than 10 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND121 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS