Inside the the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange in HCM City. Photo HoSE

HÀ NỘI - Vietnamese shares started the week on a negative note amid falling liquidity as large-caps suffered strong selling pressure.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.15 per cent to end the trading session at 1,100.07 points.

More than 789.4 billion shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ16 trillion (US$660 million).

Market breadth was negative, with 188 gainers and 321 decliners.

"Liquidity decreased compared to the previous session but was still quite high, showing that supply increased pressure on the market. The current supply at low prices is not high, so the market will be in a state of tension when entering the new week to explore supply and demand," said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

"However, with the current sign of setback, the risk of weakness in the near future is still hidden. Therefore, investors should slow down to observe supply and demand, and should not buy stocks at high prices. Currently, it is possible to take advantage of the market's ability to increase profits or restructure the portfolio."

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index was down 0.21 per cent to 1,106.72 points.

Eleven of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket increased while 17 decreased.

Leading the downtrend were the banking codes of Eximbank (EIB), Sacombank (STB), Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB) and Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), and Vietcombank (VCB).

Energy stocks performed positively, helping restrain the downtrend, with gainers such as PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), Bình Sơn Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR), Petrovietnam Transportation Corporation (PVT) and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Masan Group (MSN), SSI Securities Inc (SSI), Mobile World Group (MWG), and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) were also among the rising blue chips.

Thirteen out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including real estate, banking, food and beverage, rubber production, household appliances and logistics.

On the other side, gainers were agriculture, construction, insurance, retail, energy, securities, IT, seafood processing, wholesale, construction materials, and healthcare,

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.24 per cent to close at 226.11 points.

More than 92.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ1.7 trillion. — VNS