HÀ NỘI — Shares declined for the first time in the last four trades as investors still kept a cautious view on the market outlook amid global volatility following the US-China trade tension.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged down 0.44 per cent on Thursday, closing at 1,167.03 points, after advancing 1.6 per cent in the previous three days.

This was the second fall of this index in the past two weeks. The southern market index has expanded more than 4 per cent this month.

The trading volume continued to decrease with more than 185 million shares being exchanged, down 11.2 per cent from Wednesday’s level, but value of trades increased 6.6 per cent, totaling VNĐ6.6 trillion (US$290 million).

“Continuous declining volume reflected a somewhat depressed sentiment of investors with the sluggish movements of the market in the past few sessions and thus disbursements were reduced to some degree,” analysts at Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co wrote in a note.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index closed off 0.51 per cent at 131.88 points. Liquidity here also dropped to about 42 million shares worth VNĐ707 billion being traded, down 5.3 per cent in volume and 15.5 per cent in value compared with Wednesday’s figures.

Large caps, which were used to be the market boost, diverged largely yesterday.

Big losers included dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM), down 1.9 per cent; lenders BIDV (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG), down 1.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively; FLC Faros Construction (ROS), down 6.7 per cent; Hậu Giang Pharmaceutical (DHG), down 3.8 per cent; and budget airline Vietjet (VJC), down 1.3 per cent.

The market was cushioned by growth of steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and FPT Corp (FPT), each up more than 1 per cent; Vietcombank (VCB), up 0.7 per cent; real estate conglomerate VinGroup (VIC), up 0.4 per cent; and HDBank (HDB), up 1.2 per cent.

According to MB Securities Co, caution is necessary in the current context of rising volatility on the global markets, and we “may need a prevention strategy if the world stock markets witness unexpected slumps”.

Asian and US stocks declined for a second day on Thursday over fears China could target a broad range of US businesses if trade spat worsens.

Foreign investors turned heads selling out Vietnamese shares yesterday, offloading net sell value of VNĐ98 billion on the HCM City’s bourse but they remained net buyers on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange for a modest value of more than VNĐ8 billion. — VNS