Investors monitor share movement at Saigon Securities Company in Hà Nội. VNS Photo Đoàn Tùng

HÀ NỘI – Vietnamese shares struggled to stay positive on Wednesday despite the prolonged foreign capital outflow amid worries about the coronavirus pandemic.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange rose 0.25 per cent to end at 747.66 points.

The VN-Index had lost a total of nearly 11 per cent in the previous five trading days.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange was up 1.11 per cent to close at 101.84 points, totalling a two-day increase of 2.23 per cent.

More than 331 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ4.86 trillion (US$208.4 million).

Of the total, more than 271.4 million shares were traded via the order-matching system, worth nearly VNĐ3.4 trillion.

According to securities firms, the market benefited from a strong gain of US stocks after US authorities announced measures to support citizens and businesses.

Banks, retailers, healthcare and pharmaceutical firms, and seafood companies helped lift the market.

The four sectors’ indices rose between 1 per cent and 2.5 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the negative side, securities firms, mining and energy companies, food and beverage businesses, and rubber producers weighed on the market.

The local market had a slight recovery with trading liquidity equal to the 20-day average but investors were still hesitant to buy local assets, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities (SHS) said in its daily report.

The VN-Index and the HNX-Index picked up in the morning session then countered strong selling in the early stages of the afternoon.

The VN-Index was down as much as 0.5 per cent during the day while the HNX-Index gained slower before the two indices headed up in the last minutes.

Positive market sentiment kept the two indices in positive territory as capital flew into different groups of stocks.

But foreign capital outflow remained a challenge for the local market, SHS said. Foreign investors net-sold a total of VNĐ662.4 billion worth of shares on the two exchanges on Wednesday.

The Vietnamese market may have entered a consolidation stage and different groups of stocks will take turns to drive the market up, MB Securities Co (MBS) said in a note.

But growth would not be massive and the market may go sideways, MBS said. – VNS