Inside one of Mobile World Investment Corp's Bách Hóa Xanh store in HCM City. The company shares fell 2 per cent on Thursday. — Photo mwg.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares retreated on Thursday as investors were still cautious about the market's short-term outlook amid a lack of supportive information.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange fell 0.27 per cent to close at 963.27 points.

The market had gained 1.31 per cent on Wednesday.

The VN-Index was up as much as 0.37 per cent during the day to touch 970 points but selling increased towards the end of the day, pushing the index down.

Most sectors were hit by selling pressure after they had made strong gains to boost the market the previous trading day.

Thursday's decline had been widely expected as securities firms believed the VN-Index needed time to settle before rising.

Banking, insurance, brokerage and retail stocks ended in negative territory with their sector indices dropping 0.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent.

The worst-performing companies in those sectors included Military Bank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (CTG), Viet Capital Securities Corp (VCI), HCM City Securities Corp (HCM) and retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG).

The large-cap VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity, fell 0.48 per cent to end at 879.32 points.

Mid-cap stocks were also pushed down and the mid-cap VNMID-Index inched down 0.18 per cent at the end of the day.

More than 194.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.2 trillion (US$181.6 million).

Thursday’s trading liquidity declined from Wednesday figures, proving investors were unwilling to buy local assets.

Caution grew on Thursday as the market lacked supportive information and investors were worried about the downtrend, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

The benchmark index would continue swinging around the 970 point level as it sought balance before heading up again, the company said.

Investors would want to lower the ratio of stocks in their portfolios to 30-40 per cent and any purchases would be made when the market showed signs of improvement, TCSC forecast.

The brokerage firm added that the target now may be banks, large-cap companies and other firms with good growth prospects.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slid 0.10 per cent to end at 102.37 points.

It stepped down from a two-day increase of total 1.55 per cent.

More than 25 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ318 billion. — VNS