HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares fell in the last minutes of trading on Monday as selling pressure weighed down large-cap companies after they grew strongly in the last two sessions.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 0.26 per cent to close at 915.12 points. It had gained as much as 3.3 per cent since Friday before losing momentum on Monday.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange struggled to earn 0.06 per cent to end at 100.76 points. The northern market index had jumped 4.47 per cent on Friday.

The two stock indices lost a total of 4.5 per cent and 5.1 per cent last week.

More than 153 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ3.26 trillion (US$144.8 million).

The market fell on Monday because investors were unwilling to buy stocks given depleting liquidity that indicated caution among investors, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Company (SHS) wrote in its daily report.

Poor investor sentiment sent stocks in 14 of the 20 sectors down, according to data on vietstock.vn, with banks, securities firms, property developers and retailers reversing to the negative territory after having made good gains in the morning session.

Vietcombank (VCB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB) and Techcombank (TCB) were the bank stocks that ended on a negative note while others such as Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) and MBBank (MBB) narrowed their growth rates earned in the morning session.

Among the worst-performing securities firms were HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), BIDV Securities (BSI) and Vietinbank Securities (CTS).

Negative market sentiment also lessened growth of the sectors that saw share prices increase, such as the energy and food and beverage industries, whose indices ended up 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Foreign investors remained net sellers on Monday, recording VNĐ161.5 billion in net sell value. They net-sold a total of VNĐ1.2 trillion last week.

“The continuance of foreign net selling will definitely have negative impacts on the market trend and overall sentiment in the near future,” SHS said.

The benchmark VN Index and HNX Index may struggle to stay above their 900-point and 100-point levels on Tuesday.

“The VN Index may move sideways and settle in the range of 910-930 points in the next sessions.” — VNS