A beer production line at Sabeco (SAB). SAB lost 1.9 per cent on Monday. — Photo sggp.org.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares retreated in the final minutes of trading on Monday as investors looked to take profits after the market had gained substantially in recent weeks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange slid 0.56 per cent to close at 1,016.75  points.

More than 210.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ4.6 trillion (US$198 million).

The southern index gained 0.68 per cent last week.

Pillar stocks suffering from selling pressure included giant IT-real-estate-manufacturing-retail conglomerate Vingroup (VIC) (-1.3 per cent), brewery Sabeco (SAB) (-1.9 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (-1.3 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (-3 per cent), Vietinbank (CTG) (-1.6 per cent), Mobile World Group (MWG) (-2.2 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (-0.2 per cent), VPBank (VPB) (-1.1 per cent), Vietjet (VJC) (-0.3 per cent) and Novaland (NVL) (-0.3 per cent).

In the opposite direction, Vinhomes (VHM) (+0.2 per cent), Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (+0.4 per cent), FPT Corporation (FPT) (+0.7 per cent), Vinamilk (VNM) (+0.1 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (+0.2 per cent), Vincom Retail (VRE) (+0.1 per cent) and Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (+0.2 per cent) all rode the wave.

In addition to profit-taking pressure from domestic investors, the wobble was due to the uncertainty over whether and when the US and China would seal a deal marking a truce in their trade war, BIDV Securities Co (BSC) said in its daily report.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC), the VN-Index was forecast to continue to face volatility and correction pressure and could probably test the support zone of 1,005-1,015 points.

Overall, the VN-Index was expected to approach the strong resistance zone of 1,036-1,042 points in the short term. The market would continue to be wildly diverged among stock sectors and follow the influence of global markets, BVSC said.

Foreign investors maintained their net buying activities. They net bought VNĐ9.85 billion on HOSE, including Vincom Retail (VRE) (VNĐ33.87 billion), Vinhomes (VHM) (VNĐ30.92 billion) and Hòa Phát (HPG) (VNĐ26.56 billion).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.48 per cent to end at 106.76 points on Monday.

More than 24 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ266.6 billion.

On the HNX, pillars like Vicostone JSC (VCS) (-1.5 per cent), Asian Commercial Bank (ACB) (-0.4 per cent), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) (-1.5 per cent), Việt Nam Construction and Import-Export Corp (VCG) (-0.7 per cent) all dropped, correcting the HNX-Index after six consecutive gaining sessions. — VNS