Vietnamese shares tumbled on Tuesday morning amid profit-taking as investors looked for a way to lock in profits following recent market rallies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock slid 0.15 per cent to close the morning session at 827.05 points.

The index had rallied 8.6 per cent during the last five trading sessions. This significant gains have triggered investors to seek profits in rising large-caps.

Six pillar stocks witnessed decreases of more than 6 per cent, namely Mobile World Group (MWG), VinCom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC), Vietjet (VJC) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG).

More than 182.4 million shares were traded on the southern exchange for VND3.2 trillion (US$137 million).

The market breadth was still positive as gainers outnumbered decliners by 181 to 159.

Twelve out of 25 sectors lost ground on Tuesday morning, including Retail, securities, real estate, healthcare, oil and gas, construction materials and logistics.

The sector indices were down between 0.1 per cent and 2.3 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, decreased 0.37 per cent to close at 774.29 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.23 per cent to end Tuesday morning at 111.31 points.

More than 39.1 million shares were traded on the northern bourse for VND338.7 billion. — VNS