Techcombank's office during working hours. The bank shares rose the most yesterday, up 6.81 per cent. Photo vneconomy.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam's stock market finished lower on Monday, ending last week's rallies on strong selling forces from both local and foreign investors. 

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) inched down 9.14 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 1,411.13 points. However, the index claimed back some losses from the morning's fall. 

The market's breadth was still negative with 287 stocks declining, while 112 stocks rose. 

The market liquidity was also high as nearly 817 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth over VNĐ28 trillion (US$1.22 billion). 

Profit-taking activities weighed on the market since it opened the morning session with many big stocks recording great losses. However, strong increases of some other large-cap stocks limited the fall. 

The VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, still climbed 0.21 per cent to 1,557.79 points. Twenty-two stocks of the VN30 basket slid, while only eight stocks surged. 

Top five stocks influencing the market's trend on Monday were in utilities, real estate, material and banking sectors. Of which, PetroVietnam Gas JSC (PVGAS, GAS) posted biggest losses, down 4.76 per cent. It was followed by Vingroup JSC, No Va Land Investment Group Corporation (Novaland, NVL) and Hòa Phát Group (HPG). All these stocks lost more than 2 per cent. 

Other stocks from transportation sectors like Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) or Vietjet Aviation JSC (VJC) also witnessed big losses of more than 1 per cent.

While some bank stocks like Vietcombank (VCB) and Vietinbank (CTG) plunged more than 1 per cent on Monday, some others like Techcombank (TCB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Sacombank (STB) were up more than 3 per cent.

Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) was another stock posting positive performance with a gain of 6.19 per cent, helping the market pare some losses. 

As the new trading system created by FPT Corporation (FPT) started to operate on Monday, many analysts expected that the market's sentiment would be positive and the market benchmark would reach new highs. However, the market went against those expectations. 

FPT shares rose slightly by 0.87 per cent on Monday. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also fell 0.08 per cent to close Monday at 327.76 points. 

During the trading session, nearly 143.5 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ3.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net sellers on both exchanges with a total value of VNĐ84.4 billion. Of which, they net sold a value of VNĐ68.84 billion on HoSE and a value of VNĐ15.56 billion on the northern bourse. VNS