Shares fell on the stock exchange on strong profit-taking pressure after the benchmark VN Index climbed above the 940-point level.

Viet Nam’s key VN Index dropped 0.27 per cent to end Tuesday morning at 936.06 points. It gained total 5.4 per cent in the previous six sessions.

More than 149 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4.11 trillion (US$182.8 million).

Losing stocks outnumbered gainers by 161 to 106, while 39 others remained unchanged.

Large-cap stocks ended the morning session on a negative note as 19 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation declined, pulling the VN30 Index down 0.21 per cent to 928.98 points.

Among the decliners were PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG).

Investors also sought short profits in speculative stocks, such as property developer FLC Group (FLC) and Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC).

FLC and HQC were also the two most active stocks on the southern bourse with nearly 17 million shares being traded in total.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index was hit by profit-taking after increasing during the previous four days.

The northern market lost 0.69 per cent to close at 111.25 points, retreating from the previous four-session growth of 3.7 per cent.

More than 40.7 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND524.4 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS