Masan products on the shelves at a supermarket in Viet Nam.. Masan (MSN) fell 1.13 per cent on Monday. — Photo saigondautu.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Local market faced strong selling pressure Monday afternoon which meant the VN-Index failed to maintain 1,000 point mark achieved in the morning.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange slid 0.13 per cent to close at 996.56 points.

The index had risen 0.76 per cent last week.

More than 176.2 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4.4 trillion (US$188 million).

In the morning, the VN-Index surpassed 1,000 points but the buying demand seemed to be weak and didn't spread widely. This triggered selling pressure, causing many large stocks reversed to fall in the afternoon, such as Bank for Investment and Development (BID), FPT Corporation (FPT), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Kido Group (KDC), Masan Group (MSN), Mobile World Group (MWG), Sabeco (SAB), Vietcombank (VCB) and Vinamilk (VNM).

VCB decreased by 1 per cent to VNĐ82,100 per share. BID lost by 2.1 per cent to VNĐ39,400 per share. MWG fell by 1.5 per cent to VNĐ126,100 per share.

These stocks were among the large-caps that pushed the large-cap VN30-Index down 0.21 per cent to end at 922.89 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.27 per cent to end at 105.05 points.

More than 22.4 million shares were traded worth VND392 billion.

In the morning, the VN-Index hit 1,000 points after positive news about GDP in Q3.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), local gross domestic product (GDP) climbed nearly 7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2019, reaching its highest level for the last nine years.

The GSO also announced that in the first nine months this year, there was a record number of newly-established enterprises, reaching nearly 102,300. They also had the highest level of capital in recent years, reaching an average of VNĐ12.6 billion each.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), the 1,000 point mark will still be a strong resistance level for VN-Index in the near future.

Investors can see corrections in the price range from 990 to 1,000 points, BSC said.

However, the Q3 corporate earnings season will be factors that affect investors’ decisions, making them shift attention towards firms hoping for full-year earnings growth, it said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ75.89 billion on HOSE, including Vincom Retail (VRE) (VNĐ34.88 billion), Masan Group (MSN) (VNĐ23.13 billion) and Vinhomes (VHM) (VNĐ22.59 billion).

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the market is forecast to continuously adjust in several sessions.

“VN-Index will possibly drop to 990-995 points, where the index may need to accumulate before expectantly recovering and successfully breaking resistance zone 1000-1005 points,” BVSC said.

The wide divergence would possibly continue in several sessions. Afterward, if the index can break 1000-1005 points, this divergence might decrease, it said. — VNS