An investor watching the market's movements on her computer. The market was mixed on Monday as investors became more cautious. — VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Shares faced difficulty in closing with gains on HCM City’s exchange while they failed to do so on Hà Nội’s bourse due to growing cautious sentiment and significant divergence among sectors.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index inched up 0.09 per cent to close Monday at 1,053.81 points. The southern bourse’s index suffered declines in the last three consecutive sessions last week.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.3 per cent to end at 206.63 points. The northern bourse’s index also decreased in the three previous sessions.

The market breadth was skewed toward sellers with 338 losers and 341 gainers.

In the VN30 basket, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, 14 gained value, 12 lost and four closed flat.

Liquidity also dropped sharply. Nearly 454 million shares worth VNĐ8.1 trillion (US$343.2 million) were traded, down 42.3 per cent in volume and 39.6 per cent in value compared to Friday’s levels.

The similar figures on Hà Nội’s bourse were 61 million shares worth VNĐ840 billion, down both 46 per cent in volume and value from the previous session.

Divergence happened in most sectors.

In the banking industry, BIDV (BID), Techcombank (TCB) and Vietinbank (CTG) increased but Military Bank (MBB), VPBank (VPB) and Hồ Chí Minh Development Bank (HDB) decreased.

Vingroup (VIC) closed flat, Vinhomes (VHM) inched up 0.6 per cent but Vincom Retail dropped by more than 1 per cent.

Foreign traders returned to net buyers on Monday after seven consecutive net selling streaks. Their buys focused on shares in HCM City with a net buy value of VNĐ207 billion with Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ) leading their portfolio. Meanwhile, the value on Hà Nội’s exchange reached VNĐ11.5 billion.

“With the bearish inertia remaining, it is possible that the market will retest the area of 1,040 points of VN-Index. It’s expected that this area will have a supportive effect on the index in the short term,” Phương Nguyễn, a market analyst at Việt Dragon Securities Co, wrote in a note.

Phương suggested investors observe the movement of cash flow at the supportive zone in the near future to re-evaluate the status. — VNS