Vietnamese shares declined on Monday morning on poor market sentiment amid lack of supportive news.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.31 per cent to close at 963.17 points.

The VN-Index lost total 1.69 per cent last week.

More than 81.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.54 trillion (US$66 million).

The market breadth was negative as declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 197 to 85.

Market sentiment remained poor in the morning session as local businesses had reportedly been releasing humble earnings forecasts for 2019.

Some of the listed companies had reported lower-than-expected profits in the first quarter. Some have even announced quarterly losses.

Global investors were kept on edge as the US stock market was about to see heavy hitters such as Facebook and Microsoft reveal their Q1 earnings.

Among all 20 sectors, securities, banking, technology, food and beverage, and seafood processing industries were weighing on the market trading.

Those sector indices fell between 0.9 per cent and 1.9 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The market decline is expected to continue in the next few days, dragging stocks down further.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.60 per cent to end at 105.24 points.

The northern market index decreased by total 1.70 per cent last week.

Nearly 20.5 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND225 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS