A view of Nội Bài International Airport. The airport operator ACV shares gained 1.6 per cent on Monday. — Photo theleader.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares were little changed on Wednesday, just like global financial markets, with the US central bank Federal Reserve’s meeting in the spotlight.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.16 per cent to close at 995.15 points.

The VN-Index retreated from the previous four-day increase of total 2.83 per cent.

The market trading condition was negative with 159 decliners outnumbering 149 gainers while 59 stocks were flat.

More than 191 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.62 trillion (US$198.87 million).

Sub-indices on the southern bourse indicated the market sentiment was not too good.

The large-cap VN30-Index gained only 0.12 per cent while the mid-cap VNMID-Index and small-cap VNSML-Index were down 0.06 per cent and 0.17 per cent, respectively.

Modest changes of local indices were attributed to the caution that investors had before the end of the US Fed’s meeting on Wednesday night, according to MB Securities Co (MBS).

Investors, especially institutional ones, were waiting for the Fed to deliver a clear message about how the US interest would be in the remaining months of the year, MBS said in its daily report.

Global investors would want the Fed to cut lending rates for a second time this year but there is still disagreement.

Among the sectors that declined on Wednesday were technology, brokerage, petroleum and energy, retail, and banking.

Those were the industries that made strong gains to boost the VN-Index up in the previous four straight trading days.

Beside profit-taking pressure, the energy sector was weighed down by oil prices, which are vulnerable to ongoing tension in the Middle East.

But MBS said the retreat of the market after a four-day rally would not affect its short-term uptrend. The market may just take a step down to conquer the old peak (1,000 points) in the next few days.

On the positive side, consumer, plastics and chemicals, transportation and logistics, and some large-cap stocks were the defence of the market.

Attention was paid to dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), food and beverage company Masan (MSN), steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG), national carrier Vietnam Airlines (HVN), and Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index went up only 0.06 per cent to end at 102.29 points.

The northern market index has made up a six-day growth rate of 2.32 per cent since last Wednesday.

More than 25.4 million shares were exchanged on the northern market, worth VNĐ321 billion.  VNS