HÀ NỘI — Shares reversed at the end of the session on Tuesday, dropping due to selling pressure weighing down many large-caps, in contrast to the rally of the global market.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange was down 0.28 per cent, closing at 985.81 points.

The southern market index rose 0.79 per cent on Monday.

More than 236 million shares, worth VNĐ4.9 trillion (US$209 million), were traded on the southern bourse.

The VN-Index in the morning extended gains, driven by the positive sentiment of investors over the strong gain of the US market during Monday’s overnight trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 329.74 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 26,258.42, the S&P 500 gained 32.79 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 2,867.19, and the Nasdaq Composite added 99.59 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 7,828.91.

On the Vietnamese market, during the morning session, purchasing power concentrated on blue-chips such as dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), Vinhomes (VHM), Petro Vietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

But in the afternoon, the gaining trend stopped as selling pressure caused the indexes to drop slightly.

Large-cap stocks like brewery Sabeco (SAB), Bank for Investment and Development (BID), Vietinbank (CTG) and Vinhomes (VHM) were hit strongly.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), the market is still struggling with a lack of cash flow and strong supportive information.

Investors should carefully observe economic and political developments, especially the Brexit agreement and the US-China trade negotiations, BSC said in its daily report. According to Moody’s global recession may occur if there is no US-China agreement in the next few months.

Petroleum stocks traded in positive territory on Tuesday, boosted by the increase of oil prices on Monday’s overnight trading. This contributed to narrow the downward trend of the indices.

Brent crude was up 0.9 per cent to end Monday at $69 a barrel, the highest level since November 12, 2018.

Brent crude inched up 0.1 per cent on Tuesday morning’s trading.

On the local market, PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) advanced 0.3 per cent, PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) added 1.1 per cent, Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) rose 1.4 per cent and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) went up 1 per cent.

The petroleum sector index was up 0.6 per cent, according to data on vietstock.vn

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.22 per cent to end at 107.48 points.

The northern market index increased by 0.27 per cent on the first trading day of the week.

Foreign investors Tuesday bought a net VNĐ259.98 billion on the HOSE, focusing on Masan Group (MSN) (VNĐ107.19 billion), Vingroup (VIC) (VND66.27 billion) and Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ34.97 billion). In addition, they bought a net VNĐ4.72 billion on the HNX. — VNS