A showroom of Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (HoSE: PNJ). The company's shares fell 2 per cent on Thursday. — Photo antt.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares fell for a second day as investors pulled the large-cap sector down on stronger profit-taking while securities firms posted gains.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange slid 0.22 per cent to end Thursday at 832.40 points, totalling a two-day decline of 0.35 per cent.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange lost 0.46 per cent to close at 111.34 points, retreating from a six-day rally of 6.12 per cent.

Nearly 403 million shares were exchanged on the two bourses, worth VNĐ8.02 trillion (US$341.7 million).

The figure included more than 333 million shares traded on the order-matching system, worth VNĐ4.95 trillion.

Blue-chip stocks in the large-cap VN30 basket suppressed the market, dragging the large-cap tracker down 0.38 per cent.

Two-thirds of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined while only 10 increased.

Among the worst-performing stocks were HDBank (HDB), construction firm Coteccons (CTD), retailers Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ) and Mobile World Investment (MWG), realty firm Vincom Retail (VRE) and insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

They fell between 1.1 and 3.0 per cent.

Cash ran away from large-caps into mid-cap and small-cap companies’ stocks, boosting the two trackers by 0.36 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively.

The worst-declining sector indices on Thursday included technology, plastics and chemicals, rubber, retail, and seafood processing, which fell between 0.7 per cent and 1.7 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

On the opposite side, securities firms’ shares spiked, pulling the sector's index up 2.1 per cent to cushion the market.

The four biggest securities firms – VietCapital Securities (VCI), HCM City Securities (HCM), SSI Securities (SSI) and VNDirect Securities (VND) – saw their shares increase by 1.4-3.6 per cent.

Large-cap stocks varied but high trading liquidity proved investors were willing to purchase, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

Low-priced purchasing power remained positive and it was the main reason for the market avoiding a collapse, TCSC said.

“The market’s short-term uptrend remains optimistic and the VN-Index is expected to head to 850-860 points soon,” TCSC forecast.

But since the market had rallied from its three-year low of 660 points in late March, it would struggle against profit-taking at some point, the company warned. — VNS