HÀ NỘI — Poor market sentiment amid a lack of supportive news drove Việt Nam’s benchmark VN Index down for a second day to near the 900-point level on Wednesday.

The benchmark VN Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.49 per cent to close at 900.93 points. The VN Index has suffered a two-day decline of 1.87 per cent.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange dropped 1.24 per cent to end at 101.20 points. It was down 0.87 per cent on Tuesday.

The local stock market remained negative and the benchmark VN Index fell back to lower levels in search for low-price purchases, which is expected to boost stocks, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS) said in a note.

Trading liquidity was below the average of the 20 trading sessions, proving “market demand was too weak” and “investors would rather stay outside to observe or move to the derivatives market instead,” SHS said.

More than 182.8 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ3.9 trillion (US$173.6 million).

The figures were lower than Tuesday’s trading numbers by 12.1 per cent in volume and 5.6 per cent in value.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ13 billion worth of local shares. They net-sold nearly VNĐ80 billion in the previous session.

Bad investor mood drove half of the total 20 sectors indices go down, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Financial-banking, rubber, seafood and construction materials were the worst-performing industries.

Large-cap stocks VN30 Index were down 0.27 per cent to finish at 871.55 points.

A collapse of oil prices in Asian trading also dampened investor confidence.

The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) plunged as much as 7 per cent on Wednesday and put pressure on the local energy sector.

Among local energy stocks, PV Gas (GAS), PV Drilling (PVD) and PV Technical Services (PVS) shed at least 2.6 per cent.

“At the moment, investors are looking forward to external factors such as the US stock market” and “any move of the US stocks will have impact on local market sentiment,” said SHS.

“The market short-term outlook is likely negative,” SHS said, adding “the VN Index is forecast to test its bottom-line of 880-890 points” and the demand could take off from here. — VNS