Investors at VNDirect Securities Corporation's trading office. - Photo doanhnghiepthitruong.vn

HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares fell for a second day as investors remained concerned about the frailty of the market following Monday's collapse.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.61 per cent to close Tuesday at 953.43 points.

It shed 1.18 per cent on Monday.

The VN-Index showed signs of recovery during the day but stronger selling in the afternoon session took its toll.

The intense sell-off lifted trading liquidity from the previous day.

Nearly 265 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth VNĐ7.86 trillion (US$341.2 million).

The figures were up a quarter in volume and 75 per cent in value from Monday’s totals.

The market sentiment was quite weak at the moment, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co (SHS) said in its daily report.

Investors also seemed cautious after Asia-Pacific stock markets declined on worries about rising trade tensions, it said.

Shares in banks, securities firms, insurers and food and beverage firms continued to weigh on the market.

The indices dropped between 0.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent.

Large-cap stocks ended in negative territory with the VN30-Index losing 0.73 per cent to stand at 868.68 points.

But there was a positive sign because increased trading liquidity proved buyers were ready to buy back shares that were dumped during the day, SHS said.

The support level of 950 points motivated investors to start hunting stocks that were sold off and cushioned the market, SHS added.

On the derivatives market, the VN30F1912, which will mature later in December, was down 0.33 per cent to close at 785.10 points.

The slight fall of the VN30 futures proved investors were expecting the market to see a technical recovery soon, SHS said.

But a negative market outlook remained and the VN-Index was forecast to fall further to test the support level of 950 points, the company said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched up 0.17 per cent to end at 101.07 points.

The northern market index lost 1.56 per cent on Monday.

More than 26 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ364.6 billion.-VNS