Insurance-finance group Bảo Việt Holdings' head office in Hà Nội. The company's shares gained 2 per cent on Wednesday. — Photo vietnambiz.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares finished Wednesday largely unchanged as investors braced for further news about the development of the coronavirus.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.34 per cent to close at 925.91 points, while the minor HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange gained 0.60 per cent to end at 103.19 points.

The VN-Index inched up 0.10 per cent on Tuesday while the HNX-Index made a two-day increase of 1.85 per cent.

More than 234 million shares were traded on both local bourses, worth VNĐ4.72 trillion (US$202.4 million).

Market trading on the two exchanges ended slightly positive.

Eleven of the 25 sector indices ended in negative territory, including agriculture, rubber, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Among those sectors, the agriculture index slumped 4.4 per cent. The sector is expected to be hard hit by the coronavirus as the epidemic has had a negative impact on agricultural products shipped to China.

Pharmaceutical stocks were down after being boosted by fears of the virus.

Leading pharmaceutical stocks such as DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), Hà Tây Pharmaceutical JSC (DHT) and medical import-export firm Domesco (DMC) plunged between 4.5 per cent and nearly 7.0 per cent.

On the other side, insurance, mining and energy, food and beverage, seafood processing, and the power industries lifted the market.

Among gainers were insurance-finance group Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and technology group FPT (FPT).

The mixed performance of the Vietnamese market could be a result of different movements in global stocks from Asia to Europe and the US, according to VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS).

The virus had little impact on market sentiment on a global scale, and precious metals such as gold had not seen dramatic growth in recent days, the company said in its daily report.

Meanwhile, market sentiment remained low in Việt Nam as worries about the coronavirus persisted, VNDS said.

Government bonds were the main attraction on expectations the central bank would release a stimulus to support the economy, the company said.

The market was now on a short-term bottom line, but would likely rebound in the coming days, the company forecast. — VNS