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HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares retreated from a four-day rally amid stronger profit-taking pressure and uncertainty of US-China trade relations.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.09 per cent to close Thursday at 1,024.03 points.

The VN-Index gained total 2.61 per cent in the previous four trading days.

The growth of the benchmark index has slowed after the VN-Index passed the 1,000 point level.

The VN-Index narrowed its growth from 1.68 per cent last Friday to 0.06 per cent on Wednesday.

Weighing on the benchmark were insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), property firm Vingroup (VIC), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), and Sacombank (STB), VPBank (VPB) and Vietinbank (CTG).

While large-cap stocks lost momentum, mid-cap and small-cap stocks were also hit by profit-taking pressure.

The VNMID and VNSML indices dropped 0.12 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively.

On the positive side, good performances among the likes of Vietcombank (VCB), Vincom Retail (VRE), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), consumer firm Masan (MSN) and steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG) helped stop the market from falling further.

Among those, Hòa Phát shares jumped 3.2 per cent after the company announced its 10-month output had reached 2.18 million tonnes, up 12.5 per cent year-on-year.

More than 193 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.23 trillion (US$182.3 million).

The figures were down from the 255 million shares worth VNĐ4.7 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

The market struggled as large-cap stocks were unable to cope with increased selling pressure, especially taking profits from the VN-Index’s four-day rally, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

But a slight decrease with modest changes in trading liquidity was needed for the VN-Index to settle at the current range, the company said.

The settlement would provide a foundation for the benchmark’s future growth, it added.

In the short term, large-cap stocks such as banks and property firms would continue driving the VN-Index toward 1,045 points, the company forecast.

But in the next few days, the benchmark index would move to around 1,025 points as market sentiment would be dependent on the developments of US-China trade relations, TCSC said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.13 per cent to end at 106.88 points.

The northern market index rallied 1.6 per cent in the last five trading days since November 1.

More than 22 million shares were traded in Hà Nội, worth VNĐ287.8 billion. – VNS