Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index fell on Thursday morning, dragged down by food and beverage and agriculture sectors following the US central bank Fed’s meeting.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.33 per cent to end the morning session at 991.84 points.

The VN-Index lost 0.16 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 84.8 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.66 trillion (US$71.6 million).

Large-cap and mid-cap stocks in the food and beverage and agriculture sectors pulled the market down.

The large-cap VN30-Index and mid-cap VNMID-Index fell 0.25 per cent and 0.17 per cent, respectively.

The biggest losers in the two industries were dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), consumer business Masan (MSN) and brewer Sabeco (SAB), which were down between 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent.

Other large-caps also declined such as Vinhomes (VHM), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and Novaland (NVL).

The US central bank Federal Reserve on Wednesday night cut its interest rates for the second time this year by 25 basis points to a 1.75-2.00 per cent range.

But what worried investors was the bank’s caution about its further easing policy.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 1.01 per cent to close at 103.32 points.

The northern market index had rallied total 2.32 per cent in the previous six straight trading days.

More than 13.8 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND201 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS