HÀ NỘI — Shares dropped at the beginning of yesterday’s trading session but the increase in blue-chip stocks during the ATC session helped the market recover.

The VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) increased 0.04 per cent to close 1,172.24 points, totaling a three-day gain of 1.61 per cent.

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) dropped 0.55 per cent to end at 132.56 points, extending its two-day loss to 0.84 per cent.

More than 248 million shares, worth VNĐ7 trillion (US$307.6 million), were traded on the two local bourses.

Market breadth was negative with 209 gaining shares, 247 declining ones and 269 stocks ending flat.

The UPCoM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market decreased 0.87 per cent to stand at 59.75 points. The index increased 0.28 per cent in the previous session.

Foreign investors today were net buyers of VNĐ82.25 billion on the HOSE, focused on seafood processor Vĩnh Hoàn Corporation (VHC) (VNĐ67 billion), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ39.5 billion) and HDBank (HDB) (VNĐ28.4 billion). In addition, they sold a net of VNĐ5.82 billion on HNX.

The US stock market staged a strong recovery after its biggest weekly plunge in two years amid fears about a trade war between the US and China. Major indices on the US stock market on Tuesday, including Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P500, respectively rose by 2.84 per cent, 3.26 per cent and 2.72 per cent. This was the largest gain in the S&P500 since August 2015.

According to Bảo Việt Securities (BVSC), the optimism has returned to the US stock market as the latest news showed that it’s highly probable that the US and China will reach some trade agreements to avoid a trade war.

The global stock recovery had significantly lessened the risk for a strong correction of the VN-Index. However, given the current high profit-taking pressure, the market will likely experience a slight correction amid high divergences among stock groups in the coming sessions, BVSC said.

Banking stocks drove the market down, with Vietcombank, Vietinbank and Military Bank slumping across the board.

Large-cap stocks underperformed, as only 13 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 Index increased. However, they still pulled the large-cap index up 0.07 per cent to 1,151.09 points.

 Stocks in the VN30 basket closing higher included Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VRE), budget carrier VietJetAir (VJC), property developer Vingroup (VIC) and conglomerate Masan Group (MSN).

“BSC believed that with the amplitude of the market getting narrower and the liquidity remaining low, VN-Index continues to struggle around the peak before the breakthrough signal. Investors should balance stocks and cash proportion to flexibly react to the market,” BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said in its daily report. — VNS