An employee of Mobile World Group (MWG) speaks with customers. Shares of MWG lost 2.1 per cent yesterday. Photo courtesy of MWG

 HÀ NỘI Vietnamese stocks ended lower in a choppy session on Tuesday as profit-taking erased earlier gains and the ongoing technical congestion as well as foreign net selling dampened investors' sentiment.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange was down 0.54 per cent to close at 1,161.97 points.

It had lost 0.04 per cent to close at 1,168.27 points on Monday.

More than 641.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ15.1 trillion (US$657.3 million).

Market breadth was negative with 266 gaining stocks and 187 losers.

“The VN-Index was in downtrend for most of the trading time. Foreign investors were still net sellers on both HoSE and HNX. Market breadth turned negative but the liquidity was not much different from the previous session,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“According to our assessment, VN-Index is likely to struggle in the 1,150-1,170 zone in the next few sessions,” the company said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ1.14 trillion on HOSE, including dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ273.1 billion), PVPower (POW) (VNĐ181.8 billion) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG) (VNĐ102.9 billion). They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ15.42 billion.

Trading activities on Tuesday were continuously interrupted due to system overloads, which troubled traders and weighed down their sentiment.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index lost 0.60 per cent to stay at 1,163 points.

Twenty-two of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket decreased while seven climbed.

In the VN-30 basket, two energy stocks PVPower (POW) and Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) suffered the most with both down more than 3 per cent, followed by Mobile World Group (MWG), losing 2.1 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG), dropping 1.9 per cent, Vinamilk (VNM), losing 1.7 per cent and Vingroup (VIC), declining 1.6 per cent.

On the other side, Phát Đạt Real Estate Development JSC (PDR), Hoàng Huy Investment Financial Services JSC (TCH), Thành Thành Công – Biên Hòa Joint Stock Company (SBT) and VPbank (VPB) were the gainers with over 1 per cent increases.

Banking group suffered during trading with Military Bank (MBB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB), Eximbank (EIB), Vibank (VIB), Sacombank (STB) all losing, while the two biggest decliners were Bank for Investment and Development (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG) dropping nearly 2 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rallied 0.54 per cent to end Tuesday at 264.83 points.

The index had rallied 1.39 per cent to end Monday at 263.42 points.

Nearly 150.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ2.1 trillion. — VNS