Vietnamese shares slid on Friday morning, dragged by large-cap companies and cautious market sentiment.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.09 per cent to close at 994.02 points.

The index gained 0.66 per cent on Thursday.

The VN-Index failed to conquer 1,000 points again as selling pressure strengthened near that level and sent large-cap stocks down.

The VN-Index hit 998.52 points during the morning session before falling back on increased selling.

Investors were also cautious ahead of the US central bank Federal Reserve’s meeting on how much rates will be cut on July 31.

But they were kept off guard on Thursday after the European Central Bank held interest rates steady contrary to predictions.

The large-cap VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity, slipped 0.27 per cent to end at 887.97 points.

Twenty-one of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket declined, including Coteccons Construction Corp (CTD), retailer Mobile World (MWG), property firm Vingroup (VIC), food and beverage firm Masan (MSN) and Eximbank (EIB).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.39 per cent to end at 106.35 points.

The northern market index edged up 0.30 per cent on Thursday.

Nearly 95 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$81.7 million).

Afternoon trading starts at 1pm. — VNS