Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index extended losses on Thursday morning as weak market sentiment continued to weigh down the market movement.

The VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.08 per cent to close at 967.63 points despite investors’ efforts to pick up stocks that had gone down in the previous three straight sessions.

The VN-Index had lost total 3 per cent in the previous three trading days.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.56 per cent to end at 111.09 points, temporarily putting an end to its three-session decline of total 2.75 per cent.

Nearly 99.4 million shares were exchanged on the two trading bourses, worth VND1.86 trillion (US$82.7 million).

After three days of falling, bottom-fishing appeared to lift the stock market with the VN-Index gaining as much as 0.25 per cent in the early period of the session.

However, investors’ confidence turned weaker perhaps on worries that the trade tension between China and the US would continue, thus having a bad impact on the Vietnamese economy and equity market.

Poor confidence dragged banks, insurance companies, energy and construction firms, and rubber and plastic producers down, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The large-cap VN30 Index was positive by rising 0.22 per cent to stand at 943.11 points with 16 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advancing.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS