A chilled meat processing line at a Masan Group facility in the northern province of Hà Nam. Masan Group (MSN) shares rose 0.7 per cent on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Masan Group

HÀ NỘI — Markets fell back towards the end of trading on Tuesday, but still managed to post slight gains, witnessing a large divergence among large-caps.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.16 per cent to close at 1,018.33 points.

More than 223 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.6 trillion (US$19.5 million).

The southern index declined 0.8 per cent in the last three sessions.

After three consecutive correcting sessions, the VN-Index recovered as a series of pillar stocks increased, such as Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (+1.9 per cent), Vingroup (VIC) (+0.4 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (+0.4 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (+0.7 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (+0.7 per cent), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (+0.8 per cent), Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (+0.9 per cent), Vietjet (VJC) (+0.5 per cent), Vietinbank (CTG) (+ 0.2 per cent), and Mobile World Group (MWG) (+0.3 per cent).

However, selling demand put pressure on other bluechips, including dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (-1.4 per cent), real estate developer Vinhomes (VHM) (-0.9 per cent), VPBank (VPB) (-1.1 per cent), Military Bank (MBB) (-0.6 per cent), Khang Điền House Trading and Investment JSC (KDH) (-2.1 per cent), and Hà Nội Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (BHN) (-0.5 per cent).

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co, the expectation that the US and China had come closer to a first-phase trade agreement had improved investor sentiment and raised the US dollar sharply.

Meanwhile, safe assets like gold, JPY and CHF were under downward pressure.

However, the trade war’s recent developments indicated the actual progress may be below investors' expectations. China wanted the US to withdraw tariffs on Chinese goods, but President Donald Trump may face strong opposition from domestic political rivals and voters who were against China. This could place declining pressure on the US dollar this week, BVSC said.

The VN-Index is forecast to oscillate between 1,005-1,015 points and 1,024-1,029 points. Overall, the index is expected to approach a strong resistance zone of 1,036-1,042 points in the short term.

The market would continue to widely diverge among sectors, and fall under the influence of the global market. Blue chips and bank stocks would continue to dominate in the short term, BVSC said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.19 per cent to end at 106.96 points on Tuesday.

More than 24.8 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ281.1 billion.

On the HNX, large-caps increased, including Vietnam Trading and Construction Development Investment Joint Stock Company (MBG) (+5.4 per cent), the Post and Telecommunication Joint Stock Insurance Corporation (PTI) (+9 per cent), Vicostone JSC (VCS) (+0.7 per cent) and the Việt Nam Construction and Import-Export Corp (VCG) (+0.7 per cent), helping the HNX-Index recover slightly. — VNS