Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index was almost flat on Wednesday morning while investors remained cautious amid the uncertainty of the equity markets.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.13 per cent to end the morning session at 978.02 points.

The index had lost total 1.58 per cent in the first two trading days of the week.

More than 73.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.4 trillion (US$60.8 million).

Investors were quite cautious as they were bracing for unexpected events in the international markets.

Large-cap stocks continued underperforming as 19 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined.

The large-cap VN30-Index was down 0.05 per cent to end the morning at 886.45 points.

Meanwhile, mid-cap stocks performed well to boost the VNMID-Index up 0.07 per cent to 964.44 points.

Among the sectors that drove the market up were rubber production, food and beverage, and wholesale distribution.

Key sectors such as banking, retail and realty saw stocks declined.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.26 per cent to end at 102.59 points.

The northern market index inched up 0.05 per cent on Tuesday.

Only 11 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND119.3 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS