Vietnamese shares experienced the third strongest turbulence in a week on Friday morning as investor confidence was hit by a fresh fall in the global market.

The benchmark VN Index on HCM Stock Exchange plunged 3.34 per cent to close at 989.07 points. It fell 1.66 per cent on Thursday.

The benchmark index had its third worst fall of the week after its decline of 3.54 per cent and 5.1 per cent in the first two sessions.

The HNX Index on Ha Noi Stock Exchange dropped 1.48 per cent to end at 115.21 points. It had lost 2.24 per cent in the previous session.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) was down 1.08 per cent to 55.85 points, extending its loss from the previous decline of 0.53 per cent.

More than 210 million shares, worth VND4.86 trillion (US$216 million), were traded on the three local exchanges.

The number of declining stocks tripled that of gainers by 438 to 143, while 113 other stocks were flat.

Nineteen of the 20 industry indices on the stock market decreased. The worst-performing sectors were financial-banking, real estate, energy, agriculture and food and beverages.

Blue chips, also the leading stock of the market, underperformed. The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation, fell 3.08 per cent to 982.34 points.

Twenty-seven of the 30 largest stocks saw their values decline, including PetroVietnam Gas, FLC Faros Construction, petrol dealer Petrolimex, Kido Group and insurer Bao Viet Holdings.

The decline of the stock market was attributed to poor investor confidence after global markets had been undergoing strong volatility this week, triggering a massive sell-off from investors to preserve their portfolios.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS