HÀ NỘI Vietnamese shares dropped in the final minutes as investors looked to gain profits from the market’s recent upwards momentum.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.23 per cent to close at 980.76 points.

The southern market index gained as much as 0.53 per cent during the day after having risen total 1.35 per cent in the previous two trading days.

The VN-Index finished this week down 0.80 per cent from the previous week.

Nearly 174 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.87 trillion (US$166 million).

The market trading was balanced with 151 gaining stocks, 146 declining stocks and 59 unchanged.

The benchmark VN-Index ended in negative territory as blue chips such as residential real estate firm Vinhomes (VHM), consumer firm Masan (MSN), Vietinbank (CTG) and steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG) were hit by profit-taking pressure.

VHM fell 1.7 per cent, MSN lost 0.8 per cent, CTG edged down 0.9 per cent, and HPG dropped 0.8 per cent.

VHM, CTG, MSN and HPG had rallied total 4.6 per cent, 2.3 per cent, 3.4 per cent and 3.3 per cent in the previous three trading days, respectively.

The large-cap VN30-Index edged down 0.17 per cent to 900.13 points at the end of the day with half of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket declining.

On a sector basis, banks and brokerage firms’ shares narrowed their growth. The two industry indices gained only 0.5 per cent each at the end of the day.

The market’s performance in the last few days showed capital was flowing to some specific groups of stocks, leading the market divergence, and investors were cautious and uncertain about the market’s short-term prospects, Thành Công Securities JSC (TCSC) said in its daily report.

“The market is now in the stage that investors find themselves short of supportive news and they are clearly unsure about the short-term,” TCSC said, adding the market sentiment had turned negative in the last few trading days.

From BIDV Securities Corp’s point of view, Vietnamese stocks are in the cumulative state at the threshold of 980 points.

International and regional economic developments would continue weighing on domestic market sentiment, especially the US-China trade talks, the company said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index struggled to stay positive, ending up 0.09 per cent at 107.44 points.

The northern market index dropped 0.21 per cent on Thursday. It has lost total 0.60 per cent this week.

More than 43 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ635.7 billion. VNS