Vietnamese markets reversed into a downtrend on Tuesday morning as weak buying demand caused many large-cap stocks drop.

The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.45 per cent to end at 885.61 points.

The southern market index gained nearly 1 per cent to close at 889.64 points on Monday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was down by 0.37 per cent to close at 101.54 points.

The northern market index added 1.07 per cent to end at 101.93 points on Monday.

Nearly 60.3 million shares were traded on the two exchanges worth VNĐ1 trillion (US$45 million).

Large-cap stocks were hit hard with the blue-chip VN30 Index dropping 0.87 per cent to 844.02 points.

Twenty-two of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation decreased while only eight rose.

Thirteen of the 20 sector indices ended the morning session on a negative note, including retail, banking, real estate, insurance, construction materials and securities, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Bluechips such as Vietinbank (CTG), real estate developer Novaland (NVL), brewery Sabeco (SAB) and Vinhomes (VHM) all fell and weighed down the market.

NVL decreased 4.8 per cent to trade at VNĐ59,000 per stock after the news that HCM City authorities had temporarily stopped issuing land use changes for residential purposes on seven areas being developed by NVL in prime locations in Phu Nhuan District.

SAB fell 1.6 per cent to VNĐ240,000 per share. VHM decreased by 1.5 per cent to VNĐ73,100 per share.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS