Steel products manufactured by Hòa Phát Equipment and Accessories Co, an affiliate of Hòa Phát Group in the central province of Quảng Ngãi. The company's stock, along with other largecaps in the basket of the iShare MSCI Frontier 100 ETF , slumped yesterday as the fund lowered the proportion of stocks in its portfolio. VNA/VNS Photo Sỹ Thắng

HÀ NỘI —The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange decreased by 0.32 per cent to close at 972.00 points.

Nearly 149 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ3.5 trillion (US$150 million).

The index increased by 0.53 per cent to close Monday at 975.14 points.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange inched down 0.01 per cent to end at 105.03 points.

The index dropped 0.33 per cent to end Monday at 105.04 points.

More than 29.2 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ371 million.

Many large-cap stocks in the basket of iShare MSCI Frontier 100 ETF such as Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Việt Nam Construction And Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (VCG), Vingroup (VIC), Bảo Việt Holdings  (BVH), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) and Sabeco (SAB) all slumped today as the fund lowered the proportion of the stocks in its portfolio.

Sectors that increased included oil and gas, information and technology and seafood processing.

On the negative side, banking, real estate, insurance, food and beverages, securities, agriculture, logistics and construction were among the sectors that reported losses.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the VN-Index was forecast to rally in upcoming sessions.

“After last week’s decline, the VN-Index might accumulate between 960-993 points in the short run, before sending signals of its next movements,” the company said.

The market could diverge wildly among stock groups, while cash flow was expected to rotate among textiles, real estate, industrial parks, rubber, information technology and electricity, it added.

The market was expected to run flat in the short run, with stock exposure limited at most to 50 per cent of portfolios. Investors with large amounts of cash available should look at stocks in their support zones, it said.

Foreign investors yesterday bought a net value of VNĐ27 billion on HOSE, focusing on Vietjet Air (VJC) (VNĐ100.3 billion), PetroVietnam Power Corporation (POW) (VNĐ28.6 billion) and Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (VNĐ23.4 billion). They sold a net value of VNĐ10.01 billion on the HNX.

BIDV Securities Company (BSC) said in its daily report that investors should continue to monitor global economic developments, especially Brexit and the G20 summit which is expected to take place at the end of June. — VNS