Vietnamese shares fell on Tuesday morning with investors cautious about sglobal stocks' movement and short-term profit taking.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 0.69 per cent to close at 930.25 points. It gained 0.36 per cent on Monday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange dropped 0.94 per cent to end at 105.30 points, extending its downtrend further from the previous 1.22 per cent drop.

More than 152.8 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND2.64 trillion (US$117.6 million).

Declining stocks dominated the market, outnumbering gainers by 286 to 123, while 86 others were flat.

Across the stock market, 13 of the 20 sectors traded lower, including banks, securities firms, retailers, rubber, plastic and building material producers.

Large-cap stocks also underperformed with 23 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation on the VN30 declining, pulling the blue chip index down 1.21 per cent to 920.06 points.

Decliners included steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), budget carrier Vietjet (VJC), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and digital retailer Mobile World (MWG).

These stocks lost between 1.7 per cent and 4.5 per cent.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS