On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), the VN-Index fell sharply by 3.59 per cent to end at 1,035.91 points.

According to news site cafef.vn, VN-Index of Viet Nam was the worst performing index in Asia on Friday, besides other decliners such as Hong Kong down 1.37 per cent, Thailand down 0.84 per cent and Singapore 0.11 per cent.

The index had lost 2.69 per cent on Thursday.

The market was overrun by decliners as their headcount reached 440, against 52 advancers. Remarkably, 145 stocks hit floor prices and just six sat at the other end.

Investors traded nearly VND17 trillion (US$711.8 million) worth of shares on the exchange, equivalent to a volume of more than 877 million shares.

The VN30-Index echoed the VN-Index's pattern with a loss of 3.87 per cent, ending the session at 1,039.54 points. In the basket, 26 stocks slid and four climbed.

In the VN-30 basket, a series of stocks hit the daily limit decline of 7 per cent, including Vietinbank (CTG), Mobile World Group (MWG), PV Power (POW), Sacombank (STB), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and VPBank (VPB).

No sector ended the session on the front foot as bearish sentiment was witnessed across the board. The securities and seafood processing sectors were the main catalysts for the stumble with a sector-wide drop of 5.4 and 6.6 per cent respectively.

In the securities sector, SSI Securities (SSI) lost 3.4 per cent, followed by VNDirect Securities (VND) and Viet Capital Securities (VCI).

Seafood processing also saw lots of red on the screen. Major decliners included Vinh Hoan Corp (VHC), Nam Viet Corp (ANV) and I.D.I International Development and Investment (IDI).

In the realty sector, the trio stocks of the Vin family - Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom (VRE) - saw mixed results. While Vincom fell 1.9 per cent, Vingroup and Vinhomes minted a gain of 0.2 and 0.4 per cent.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) declined on Friday, losing 3.84 per cent to end at 226.09 points. — VNS