PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) engineers at a facility. The company shares lost 1.7 per cent on Friday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese stock markets experienced a choppy trading session on Friday as shares encountered correcting pressure with sharper divergence among stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Minh Stock Exchange was down 0.01 per cent to close at 1,181.56 points.

It had moved up 0.7 per cent on Wednesday.

More than 624.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ14.6 trillion (US$632 million).

Market breadth was negative with 182 gaining stocks and 280 losers.

“The resistance area of 1,185-1,200 point is a strong resistance level for the VN-Index in terms of sentimental and technical factors,” said Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC).

“Therefore, we believe that the market shall encounter correcting pressure when approaching this zone.

“Overall, the market still fluctuates in the area limited by the upper bound of 1,185-1,200 points and the lower bound of 1,150-1,155 points,” BVSC said.

“Investors should maintain the stock exposure at 50 per cent. After buying at the support zone of 1,150-1,155 points, investors can consider lowering stock proportion when the market approaches the strong resistance zone at 1,185-1,200 points,” BVSC said.

Although foreign investors remained net sellers on both HSX and HNX, their net selling value is declining, said BIDV Securities Co.

“If the trend of net selling continues to decline and market liquidity remains stable, the VN-Index may retest the 1,180-1,200 range in the near future,” the company said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ267.36 billion on HOSE, including dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ117.5 billion), steel maker Hoà Phát Group (HPG) (VNĐ43.7 billion) and Vietcombank (VCB) (VNĐ40.4 billion). They were net sellers on the HNX with the value of VNĐ17.21 billion.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index lost 0.08 per cent to stay at 1,187.81 points.

Sixteen of the 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket decreased while seven gained ground.

In the VN-30 basket, PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), SSI Securities Inc (SSI), Khang Điền House (KDH) and Mobile World Group (MWG) were among the losers with more than 1 per cent decrease.

On the other side, Thành Thành Công Biên Hoà JSC (SBT) was the strongest gainer with more than 4-per cent increase, VPBank (VPB) advanced more than 1 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rallied 0.14 per cent to end Friday at 273.91 points.

The index had climbed 2.4 per cent to close the session at 273.52 points.

More than 144.5 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ2.3 trillion. — VNS