A Vincom Centre developed by Vincom Retail (VRE). Shares of VRE lost 1.7 per cent on Thursday. — Photo courtesy of Vincom Retail

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares slipped on Thursday as a surge in profit-taking hit stocks in key sectors.

The benchmark VN-Index in the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.43 per cent to close trading at 908.58 points.

The index had gained 0.70 per cent to close Wednesday's trading session at 912.50 points.

Nearly 398.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ6.4 trillion (US$274.6 million).

Market breadth was negative with 271 decliners and 133 gainers.

According to BIDV Securities Company, the unchanged market liquidity and negative market breadth indicated that cautious trading was dominating the market.

“The VN-Index is likely to fluctuate in the range of 900-920 points in the coming sessions,” it said.

“Investors can limit transactions when the results for the third quarter macro-economy growth is announced. If the results are positive, it can be the driving force to help the market overcome this difficult fluctuation period,” the company said.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, decreased 0.59 per cent to close Thursday at 853.21 points.

In the VN-30 basket, 21 stocks lost ground and eight increased while one remained flat.

On a sector basis, 15 out of 25 sector indices lost steam, including wholesale, retail, insurance, real estate, securities, information and technology, mining, banking, agriculture, chemicals and plastic production, food and beverage, seafood processing and construction materials.

On the other side, gainers were healthcare, rubber production and logistics.

Many bluechips in key sectors suffered from the rise of profit-taking pressure such as Vingroup (VIC), losing 1.6 per cent, Vinamilk (VNM), dropping 1.5 per cent, Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), slumping 1.2 per cent, Sabeco (SAB), down 1.6 per cent, Vinhomes (VHM), losing 0.5 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE), declining 1.7 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG), dropping 1 per cent, VPBank (VPB), down 1.5 per cent, Hòa Phát Group (HPG), decreasing 0.6 per cent and FPT Corporation (FPT), losing 1.2 per cent.

The minor HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange lost 0.70 per cent to end Thursday at 131.71 points.

It had gained 0.34 per cent to end Wednesday at 132.64 points.

More than 54.7 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ697 billion.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ121.71 billion on HOSE. They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ27.80 billion. — VNS