Vietnamese shares traded marginally Wednesday morning on poor market sentiment amid a general uncertainty in global market conditions.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange went down 0.05 per cent to close at 982.50 points. It fell 0.76 per cent on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.06 per cent to close at 110.98 points, after dropping nearly 1 per cent on Tuesday.

More than 126.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND4.33 trillion (US$192.7 million).

Large-cap stocks performed well to push the VN30 Index up 0.08 per cent to 974.68 points, with 18 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advancing.

Support for the stock market came from energy, real estate, banking, and securities, as well as the information technology and agriculture sectors, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Of those industries, energy stocks gained well on the back of a rise of global crude. Brent crude was up 0.3 per cent, trading at US$76.54 a barrel in the morning session.

Gainers included PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Well Drilling and Services (PVD), and PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS).

On the negative side, consumer staples, insurance, pharmacy and healthcare, and plastic production were among the industries that weighed down the market’s growth.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS