Insurer Bảo Việt Holdings shares (HoSE: BVH) surged 6.9 per cent after the company received a deal from Japan-based insurance firm Sumitome Life to purchase more than 41.4 million shares. — Photo bizlive.vn

HÀ NỘI — Despite global gains, Vietnamese shares ended Monday in negative territory as investors awaited the year-end.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange closed down 0.49 per cent at 961.47 points.

The southern market index gained a total of 0.27 per cent last week.

More than 278 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ5.67 trillion (US$244 million).

The Vietnamese market went against the trend on Monday as both regional and global stocks cheered on the completion of phase 1 of the US-China trade pact.

But improvements in US-China trade relations were too weak to bring any changes to the local market, as most of investors remained pessimistic about the short-term outlook, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in its daily report.

Poor market sentiment was evident by the fact the market breadth went negative and declining stocks were dominant, VNDS said.

On Monday, 178 stocks declined on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, while 141 made gains.

The large-cap VN30-Index on Monday lost 0.44 per cent to finish at 876.65 points with 14 of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity.

It would be tricky for shareholders to earn profits from short-term trades given the alternate ups and downs from one day to another, VNDS said.

Narrow movement on the VN-Index proved market sentiment was weak and investors were unwilling to buy stocks at the moment, the company said.

“Institutional investors are not ready to return before the first weeks of the new year,” VNDS said.

There was not enough good news to boost market sentiment, VNDS added.

Among the large-cap stocks that advanced on Monday was finance group Bảo Việt (BVH).

Bao Viet shares surged 6.9 per cent to close Monday at VNĐ72,700 per share after the Japanese insurer Sumitome Life announced plans to buy more than 41.4 million Bảo Việt shares.

Other large-caps that advanced included Novaland (NVL), Coteccons Construction Group (CTD), logistic firm Gemadept (GMD) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was up 0.27 per cent to end at 103.22 points.

The northern market index lost a total of 0.43 per cent last week.

More than 39.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ388.6 billion. — VNS