An employee of VIB talks to a customer at its transaction office. The bank's shares climbed 7 per cent - the biggest intraday rise on HoSE - yesterday, cushioning the market's loss. Photo courtesy of VIB

HÀ NỘI — Indices were mixed on Monday as stronger selling pressure weighed on investors’ risk appetite, but gains in some pillar stocks cushioned the loss. 

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the trading day at 1,195.53 points, a decline of 3.37 points, or 0.28 per cent, compared to the previous session. 

The index reversed after gaining for two consecutive sessions. 

The market’s breadth was still positive as there were still more stocks increasing than vice versa. 

Liquidity was lower than in the last trading session, of which more than 442.8 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ10.1 trillion (US$432.2 million).

The benchmark opened the session on a bullish note, but rising sell-off force in the late morning and in the afternoon trade dragged the index down. 

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in the market capitalisation on HoSE, posted a fall of 3.87 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 1,248.37 points. 

Twelve stocks in the VN30 basket inched higher, while 16 stocks slid. And two stocks stayed unchanged. 

Data compiled by a financial website vietstock.vn showed that Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) was the stock leading the downside, down 3.56 per cent. It was followed by PV Gas (Gas), Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Đức Giang Chemicals Group (DGC) and Vinhomes (VHM). These stocks reported a decline of 0.65-5.2 per cent. 

Other big stocks that weighed on the market’s sentiment were Vietinbank (CTG), FPT Corporation (FPT), Masan Group (MSN) and Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ).

Losses were capped by gains in some large-cap stocks, especially banking and manufacturing sectors, including Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Vinamilk (VNM), MBBank (MBB) and Techcombank (TCB), with VIB shares hitting the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent. 

On the other hand, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) rose 2.31 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 281.19 points. 

Foreign investors were net sellers on both main exchanges with a total value of over VNĐ132.8 billion. Of which, they net sold VNĐ131.16 billion on HoSE and VNĐ1.66 billion on HNX. VNS