Dairy producer Vinamilk's cattle farm in Tây Ninh Province. The company's shares fell 1.2 per cent on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares fell in the early minutes of the afternoon session on increased selling but quickly rebounded on bargain-hunting power.

The local market tumbled after continuing its rally in the morning session as US President Donald Trump announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its daily report.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped as much as 1.79 per cent to 897.72 points during the day.

“However, the demand at bottom catching appeared right after that and narrowed the drop,” BSC said.

The VN-Index ended down 0.46 per cent to 909.91 points on Friday. It had gained a total of 1.12 per cent in the previous two days.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index fell 0.7 per cent to 861.51 points and the VN30 futures due on October 15 was down 0.63 per cent to 861.5 points.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices fell by 0.06 per cent and 0.51 per cent, respectively.

On the southern market, the number of declining stocks doubled that of gainers by 294 to 106 while 65 stocks ended flat.

Among large-caps that weighed on the market were dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG), high-end residential realty firm Vinhomes (VHM), mall operator Vincom Retail (VRE), VPBank (VPB) and consumer company Masan (MSN).

On the positive side, Vietinbank (CTG), Vingroup (VIC), PetroVietnam Power (POW), sugar producer Thành Thành Công-Biên Hòa JSC (SBT) and Hoàng Huy Investment and Financial Services (TCH) were the only five gainers in the large-cap basket.

The retail, food and beverage, seafood processing, materials, technology, and plastics and chemicals were among the worst-performing sectors on Friday.

The northern HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange also had a similar trading pattern as it lost as much as 0.69 per cent before ending up 1.06 per cent.

The HNX-Index has increased by a total of 2.4 per cent in the last three trading days.

More than 616.5 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth nearly VNĐ9.9 trillion (US$426 million).

Market sentiment was expected to settle down in the coming days and the VN-Index may keep increasing to 920-930 points, Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in a note.

“However, that means the benchmark will get a lot of challenges with that resistance zone,” TCSC said. “Local stocks will keep dividing on their earnings prospects.” — VNS