Investors watch market movements at the Military Bank Securities (MBS) trading floor. — VNS Photo Trương Vị

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares slid Thursday as investors began to take some profits from last week’s markets advance.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.12 per cent to close at 978.50 points.

The VN-Index rose nearly 1.4 per cent last week.

More than 152 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3.4 trillion.

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 182 to 106 while 92 stocks were flat.

Technology, agriculture, insurance, banking and rubber industries were hit by profit-taking pressure.

The insurance sector index dipped 5.2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed. It was also the worst-performing sector index.

The insurance industry was dragged down by Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

On Thursday, 12 million ESOP shares of total 20.4 million shares issued by Bảo Việt Holdings in 2018 were officially available for trading.

The company shares hit the daily limit decline of 7 per cent.

Other large-cap stocks that declined included Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vietinbank (CTG).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.43 per cent to end at 107 points.

The HNX-Index gained nearly 1.5 per cent last week.

Some 31 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ386 billion.

Regarding updates on Q1 2019 business results, 444 companies published Q1 2019 business results (accounting for 83.16 per cent of market capitalisation of HoSE and HNX), according to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC).

Sectors with higher profit growth in the first quarter than the same period last year included retails (23.34 per cent), information technology (22.86 per cent), and banking (11.31 per cent).

In retail, Mobile World Group (MWG) shares achieved a profit growth rate of 28.86 per cent with improved net profit margin, while in information technology, FPT Corporation (FPT) saw a profit growth of 23.04 per cent.

Up to now, 12 banks have released financial statements for the first quarter of 2019. Eight recorded profit growth and only four had a decline in profit compared to the same period last year.

The profit growth of banks (with financial statements published) has reached 11.31 per cent, including Vietcombank (VCB) (34.34 per cent), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) (47.74 per cent), Tiền Phong Bank (TPB) (33.04 per cent), Military Bank (MBB) (24.77 per cent), and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) (19.34 per cent).

Profit of real estate sectors dropped by 14.22 per cent while revenue dropped by 12.97 per cent. Such declines were driven by the decrease in profit of Kinh Bắc City Development Holding Corp (KBC) (-57.38 per cent), Vinhomes (VHM) (-34.97 per cent), and Long Hậu Corporation (LHG) (-27.85 per cent). Meanwhile, Vingroup (VIC) maintained a profit growth of 12.92 per cent, limiting the decrease of the entire sector.

BVSC said in its daily report that the market had been fluctuating and moved sideways in 965-983 zones. Market’s new trend could be created if the sideways movement is broken. — VNS