A Vietcombank trading office in Vĩnh Phúc Province’s Vĩnh Yên City. Vietcombank (HoSE: VCB) was among declining bank stocks on Friday morning as they were hit by profit-taking pressure. - VNA/VNS Photo

Vietnamese shares ended Friday morning in negative territory as investors looked for profits in the sectors that had seen increases.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.04 per cent to close at 951.97 points.

The southern market index had gained total 4.8 per cent in the previous four straight sessions of the week.

More than 75.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.83 trillion (US$78.6 million).

Banks and real estate firms, which were the main driving factors of the stock market in the previous four sessions, fell in the morning.

The two industry indices slipped 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

In the banking sector, only Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB) and Techcombank (TCB) remained positive but their growth rates were modest at 0.2 per cent each.

Other bank stocks such as Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB) and TPBank (TPB) all saw their shares declined between 0.2 per cent and 1.4 per cent.

The three giant property developers Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vinhomes (VHM) also declined after having rallied in recent days.

On the opposite side, petroleum stocks continued being boosted by the rally of global oil prices.

PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) gained 1.3 per cent and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) advanced 2.7 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the minor HNX Index edged up 0.07 per cent to end at 106.19 points.

Nearly 19 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND230 billion.

The northern market index fell 0.35 per cent on Thursday.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS