Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index, which now tracks 186 companies and four mutual funds on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, lost 0.75 percent or 4.21 points Friday induced by a bearish global market.

The index finished at 555.84 as trade volume dropped by 20 percent over Thursday. More than 53.2 million shares worth nearly VND2.67 trillion (US$149.4 million) changed hands.

Shares zigzagged several times during the session and most performed well until the first half before investors rushed to dump stocks. Among the index members, declines outnumbered gains by 127 to 38 and 21 shares were unchanged. Most blue-chips closed down.

Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Co. in the Mekong Delta Ca Mau Province was the biggest loser November 20, followed by Taya (Vietnam) Electric Wire and Cable Joint Stock Co. (TYA) in Dong Nai Province neighboring the city and the city-based Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading Joint Stock Co. (TCM).

The top three active stocks in volume saw Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) top the list with more than 2.73 million shares traded on the city bourse. The country’s largest brokerage based in HCM City slid 1.12 percent to VND88,500.

Petrovietnam Transportation Corp. (PVT) in HCM City, which gained 4.89 percent to VND19,300, was next having more than 2.42 million shares traded, followed by Saigon Commercial Bank or Sacombank (STB) which saw 1.94 million shares change hands at VND27,200, down 0.73 percent over Thursday.

After the bell, petrol stocks saw robust growth as An Pha SG Petrol Joint Stock Co. (ASP), the bourse’s biggest listed liquefied petroleum gas importer and trader, rose 4.65 percent to VND17,200. The company has raised VND100 billion ($5.6 million) by selling 1 million five-year convertible bonds through private placement, it said in a statement filed on the exchange website Thursday.

Dong Phu Rubber Joint Stock Co. (DPR), Vietnam’s third-largest listed producer, dropped 0.83 percent to VND60,500 after reaching the highest since October 29 the day earlier. Rubber on Thursday climbed to the highest level in almost 14 months after shippers in Thailand, the world’s largest producer, raised prices to foreign buyers as heavy rain curbed output.

Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp. (ITA) lost 2.56 percent to VND42,900. The city-based company is going to list an extra 2.1 million shares on the exchange, according to a statement filed on the exchange website Friday.

Hanoi’s HNX-Index also stayed in the red, falling to 184.79, down 0.89 points or 0.48 percent. Around 24.4 million shares worth VND 986 billion changed hands.

UP-CoM index didn’t perform any better tumbling 1.56 percent or 1.02 points to 64.44. A total of 62,230 shares were traded at VND809.5 million.

In the US, signs of a subdued economic recovery sent investors out of stocks Thursday and in search of safer assets like the dollar. Major indexes including the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled about 1 percent. Energy and material stocks logged the biggest losses as a jump in the dollar sent commodity prices tumbling. Meanwhile, an analyst’s downgrade of the chip industry pulled technology shares sharply lower.

As stocks fell, investors flocked to the dollar and Treasurys.