Vietnamese shares declined on Monday morning, dragged by real estate companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.36 per cent to end at 934.07 points.

The VN-Index fell a total of 0.35 per cent last week.

Nearly 110 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.92 trillion (US$82.6 million).

Real estate firms weighed on the market. The property index slumped 2.6 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

The property sector was sent lower by Vingroup (VIC), which dropped 3.2 per cent.

Other large-cap real estate companies’ stocks also declined such as Vincom Retail (VRE), Vinhomes (VHM) and Novaland (NVL).

Agriculture, retail, seafood processing, construction, and transportation and logistics were among other sectors that traded in negative territory.

On the other side, food and beverage, banking, mining and energy, and utilities were the sectors that cushioned the market.

GTNFoods JSC shares (GTN) surged 6.8 per cent following its annual shareholder meeting held on Saturday.

Dairy firm Vinamilk shares (VNM) edged up 0.8 per cent.

On Saturday, Vinamilk CEO Mai Kieu Lien became the new chairwoman of GTNFoods.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.40 per cent to close at 109.30 points.

The northern market index gained a total of nearly 4.60 per cent last week.

More than 19 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND216.6 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS