Vietnamese shares fell sharply on Monday morning, driven by large-cap stocks on low investor sentiment.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange tumbled 2.23 per cent or 21.38 points to close at 939.40 points.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 3.35 per cent to end at 102.61 points.

The two stock indices had declined total 2.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, last week.

More than 104.7 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND2.1 trillion (US$94 million)

Large-cap stocks were hit by strong selling as investors remained uncertain in the market’s short-term prospects despite the General Statistics Office (GSO) last week estimated the country’s first-half GDP growth at 7.08 per cent – the highest since 2011.

Twenty-nine of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket were on the negative note in the morning.

Some of those lost between 3 per cent and 5 per cent such as Vietcombank (VCB), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) and consumer staple Masan (MSN).

The stocks in the VN30 basket that lost around 5 per cent included insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), MBBank (MBB), FLC Faros Construction (ROS) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks also ended in the negative territory. Among decliners were FLC Group (FLC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corp (KBC).

The afternoon session starts at 1pm. – VNS