Vietnamese shares were dragged down by strong profit-taking pressure yesterday while investors remained cautious towards the current trading outlook. — Photo vneconomy.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares were dragged down by strong profit-taking pressure yesterday while investors remained cautious towards the current trading outlook.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 1.28 per cent to close at 1,138.53 points, retreating from 0.4 per cent growth on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange fell 1.09 per cent to end at 132.78 points. It gained 0.7 per cent in the previous session.

Nearly 233 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ6.25 trillion (US$278 million), up 5 per cent in volume and 1.5 per cent in value from Tuesday.

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 279 to 181 and 117 other stocks were steady, showing investors were quiet amid the current market volatility.

Across the two stock markets, 15 of 20 sectors saw share prices fall, including leading industries such as banking-finance, property development, energy and building material production.

Among those sectors, the worst-performing industries were banking, insurance and securities, which lost between 3.3 per cent and 1 per cent.

The banking sector was driven down by Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Vietcombank (VCB). Those four bank stocks each lost at least 3.3 per cent.

Among insurance and brokerage stocks that suffered were insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Agribank Securities (AGR), VNDirect Securities (VND) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS).

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), confidence remained low as investors worried about the world’s macroeconomic conditions and that concern caused the market to decrease.

China on Tuesday announced heavy anti-dumping deposits on US sorghum with an accusation against the US for selling this agricultural product below market value.

“No further information on the talks between the two nations over the trade war has been revealed. Therefore, this factor will remain an unpredictable objective risk for the global stock markets in the short term,” Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC) said in its report.

Modest trading liquidity showed investors were hesitant as liquidity rose but remained far below the moderate level amid negative market breadth, BVSC said.

Such trading conditions indicated “investors’ cautiousness and fears about a market’s plunge in the next session,” it said, adding that the VN Index may continue to fall before reverting to a sustainable uptrend.

“The VN Index is likely to drop to the 1,130-1,135 point threshold in the next sessions,” BVSC forecast. “The market is expected to recover in this zone, but this recovery could be a technical rise” and “the index can still slide afterwards.” — VNS