Vietnamese shares slid on Monday morning, pulled down by large-cap companies.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.12 per cent to close at 969.61 points.

The VN-Index fell a total of 0.72 per cent last week.

Large-cap companies were the main cause for the stock market’s decline in the early trading session.

The large-cap VN30-Index dropped 0.14 per cent to stand at 886.21 points.

Thirteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined.

Among decliners were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), Eximbank (EIB), real estate firm Novaland (NVL) and HDBank (HDB).

Investors also sought ways to flee from mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

Selling pressure sent mid-cap VNMID-Index and small-cap VNSML-Index down 0.28 per cent and 0.35 per cent.

More than 90 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.9 trillion (US$82 million).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.35 per cent to end at 102.14 points.

The northern market index was down total 0.57 per cent last week.

Nearly 14 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND164.3 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS