PV Gas engineers operate a gas pipeline at a plant in Cà Mau. The company shares lost 2.4 per cent yesterday. —VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — The market witnessed a downhill slide of blue chips in the last trading minutes on Wednesday, pulling down the VN-Index and putting the brakes on its six-session rallying streak.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index inched down 0.1 per cent to close the day at 1,502.34 points despite rising for most of the trading time. The southern market’s index had gained more than 4 per cent in the past six sessions.

The VN-30 Index which tracks the top 30 largest shares and liquidity here decreased 0.52 per cent with 22 shares falling and only seven rising, a contrasting picture compared to an increase of 0.4 per cent and 18 shares growing in the morning.

PV Gas (GAS) topped the list of shares pulling the VN-Index most with a slide of 2.4 per cent, followed by Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Masan Group (MSN) each falling by 1 per cent.

It was noted that nearly 14 million VIC shares worth VNĐ1.14 trillion (USS$49.6 million) were traded through negotiation method at the price of VNĐ82,200 a share.

Overall, the property and banking sectors reversed from gains to losses but not too negative while other groups either declined or cooled down. Only two industries maintained impressive growth including chemicals and seafood with prominent gainers such as Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), up 2.2 per cent; Đức Giang Chemicals Group (DGC), up 6.4 per cent; PetroVietnam Fertilisers and Chemicals (DPM), up 4.6 per cent; and seafood processor Camimex Group (CMX), up nearly 7 per cent.

Liquidity decreased slightly to more than 861 million shares worth VNĐ28 trillion ($1.2 billion) being exchanged.

“After rising in terms of points, the market started to witness profit-taking pressure near the level of 1,510 points, shown by narrowing candle range and increasing order-matching trading volume compared to yesterday’s,” said Phương Phạm, a stock analyst at Viet Dragon Securities Co.

Phương reckoned with the current profit-taking pressure, it is likely that the market will temporarily step back to find a balance point and suggested investors observe and re-evaluate the market during the correction.

By contrast, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange extended gains to four sessions in a row, up 0.16 per cent to end at 462.10 points. The northern market’s index has gained 4.5 per cent in the last four sessions.

Nearly 133 million shares worth VNĐ4.2 trillion were traded here.

Foreign traders increased combing stocks on both exchanges, picking up shares worth net buy value of VNĐ1.05 trillion, of which their buys focused on shares on HCM City’s bourse worth VNĐ1.02 trillion with DGC topping the buying list with a net value of VNĐ310 billion. — VNS