Vietnamese shares slid on Friday morning, dragged by financial-banking and retail companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.09 per cent to close at 773.20 points.

The VN-Index had gained a total of 0.92 per cent in the previous two days.

More than 146.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND2.17 trillion (US$92.4 million).

The major bourse was pulled down by profit-taking at the beginning of the day.

Stocks in the financial-banking and retail industries were to blame for the market decline.

Those stocks had grown well to propel the market growth in previous days.

Leading companies in those sectors all saw shares decline such as insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), SSI Securities (SSI), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), and Vietcombank (VCB).

BVH dropped 1.6 per cent, SSI slipped 1.1 per cent, MWG lost 1.2 per cent and VCB was down 1.3 per cent.

On the opposite side, Vinamilk shares (VNM) helped cushion the market from dropping further.

VNM jumped 5 per cent after the company announced it would buy back 17.5 million shares.

Other large-caps that also advanced included steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), Coteccons Construction (CTD), and conglomerate Vingroup (VIC).

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was down 0.10 per cent to end at 106.86 points.

The northern market index had increased by a total of 2.17 per cent in the previous two days.

More than 30 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND186.4 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS