A series of large stocks dropped deeply on Thursday morning and put great pressure on the whole market.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.79 per cent to end the morning session at 970.43 points

More than 80.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.67 trillion (US$71.4 million).

The index gained 0.14 per cent to close Wednesday at 978.17 points.

Market breadth was negative on Wednesday with 73 shares gaining and 223 declining.

The large-cap VN30-Index decreased by 1 per cent to stand at 886.14 points.

A series of pillar stocks on the market such as FPT Corporation (FPT), Vinhomes (VHM), Vinamilk (VNM), VPBank (VPB), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vietcombank (VCB) all fell sharply.

In particular, FPT decreased by 1.9 per cent to VND55,900 per share, VCB lost by 1.2 per cent to VND85,300 per share, VNM dropped by 1.1 per cent to VND13,800 per share.

On a sector basis, only three of the 25 sectors saw share prices rising, including wholesale, seafood processing and construction.

On the opposite side, 22 of the 25 sectors saw share prices drop, including oil and gas, rubber production, food and beverage, construction materials, healthcare, real estate, banking, agriculture, plastic and chemistry and logistics.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was down 0.64 per cent to end the morning session at 102.57 points.

More than 12 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND159 billion.

The northern market index lost 0.73 per cent to end Wednesday at 103.23 points. — VNS