HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares ended lower on Tuesday as investors showed caution over possibilities of a strong market’s correction after it had failed to beat the 1,000-point landmark.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange lost 1.37 per cent to close at 975.94 points. The southern market index gained total 0.25 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange fell 1.39 per cent to end at 111.23 points. It added 1 per cent in the previous week.

The VN Index has lost total 2.22 per cent in the last two sessions from Friday and the HNX Index has slipped 2.08 per cent in the same period.

Nearly VNĐ4.74 trillion (US$210.6 million) worth of 231 million shares was exchanged on the two trading bourses.

The market breadth was negative with 175 gaining stocks against 271 declining while 107 others ended flat.

The decline was due to high investors’ caution as they worried about a market correction after the VN Index failed to beat the 1,000 point landmark last week, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS) said in its daily report.

Trading liquidity fell from Friday’s figures and it proved investors were hesitant to buy in stocks, SHS said, adding it was difficult to define whether the VN Index just stepped back a little or it was on the way down from 1,000 points.

Investors’ caution spread among all stocks and forced 13 of the 20 sectors to go down, including key industries like banks, real estate firms, securities companies, retailers and construction contractors.

Large-cap VN30 Index recorded an even worse fall, losing 1.87 per cent to 951.14 points at the end of the day, with 24 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket declining.

Among declining stocks in the VN30 basket were budget carrier Vietjet Air (VJC), Vietinbank (CTG), Vincom Retail (VRE), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and MBBank (MBB).

Given the signals, “the market may still suffer strong correction” and “the VN Index is likely to drop to the support zone of 970 points in the next session,” Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) said in a note.

In case the VN Index broke down the support zone of 970 points, the market may experience a sharper downtrend on a weekly chart, BVSC added. – VNS