A Vietcombank office. The bank's stock were among the large-caps that fell on Monday. — Photo vietcombank.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares slipped on Monday as investors continued seeking profits from previous gains made by large-caps.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ CHí Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.70 per cent to close at 1,002.91points.

Việt Nam’s benchmark index closed down 1.2 per cent last week.

More than 184.3 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.2 trillion (US$181.5 million).

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 197 to 132, indicating relatively strong selling pressure.

The stock market was under large-scale selling pressure and the VN-Index was pushed back near 1,000 points.

The benchmark VN-Index lost in four of all five trading days last week after having approached the 1,025-point level on November 6.

According to analysts, the 1,025-point zone would be a very strong resistance level for the VN-Index, and the benchmark could encounter strong selling pressure around that zone.

Monday’s fall indicated investors wanted to escape from the market after a weak performance last week despite positive developments of global stocks, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in its daily report.

Investors, especially foreign ones, were net-sellers in large-cap shares such as tech giant FPT Corp (FPT), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG) and Vietcombank (VCB) to force the benchmark to decline, the company said.

Large-scale selling on Monday resulted in big losses for the real estate, technology, banking, securities, food and beverage, and agriculture sectors.

Those sector indices lost between 0.6 per cent and 1.8 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Investors were being cautious because the market was lacking supportive news, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in a note.

The VN-Index may continue struggling around 1,000-1,005 points in the coming days with large-cap stocks heading in mixed directions, the company forecast.

If the VN-Index dropped below 995 points, its year-to-date uptrend would be broken and investors were expected to bottom-hunt, VNDS said.

In global markets, the focus is on US-China trade talks – which are expected to arrive with positive results in December – and the next US central bank’s meeting – which will deliver a clearer path on how global financial markets will move.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined by 0.83 per cent to end at 105.15 points.

The northern market index slumped 1.16 per cent in total last week.

More than 20.5 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth nearly VNĐ245 billion.  VNS