Vietnamese shares fell on Monday morning, dragged by the poor performance of large-cap stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.32 per cent to close at 982.14 points.

The southern market index gained a total of nearly 0.59 per cent last week.

Nearly 98 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND1.86 trillion (US$80 million).

Large-cap stocks declined on the southern bourse, pulling the blue-chip VN30 Index down 0.09 per cent to 913.93 points.

Of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket, 14 declined while 10 advanced.

Among decliners were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Vietcombank (VCB), HDBank (HDB) and consumer company Masan (MSN).

According to analysts, the VN-Index may go sideways this week as investors lack supportive information from both local and international markets.

In addition, investors’ confidence has been weighed down by worries about the global economic slowdown.

The VN-Index would settle around 980 points before rising to beat the 1,000 point level, analysts said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index was down 0.29 per cent to end at 107.91 points.

The northern market index rose total 0.89 per cent last week.

More than 27.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND297.3 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS