HÀ NỘI — On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 10 points, or 1.09 per cent to end the session at 950.8 points.

The market breadth was negative with the declining stocks outnumbering the gaining ones by 286-137.

Many large-cap shares retreated in the last half of the afternoon trade.

Only six of the top 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity increased while 23 decreased.

Big gainers in the morning such as Vingroup (VIC) and Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ) narrowed their gains from more than 4 per cent in the early session to just 1.1 per cent each when the closing bell rang.

Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE) lost 1.3 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively.

Masan Group increased 2.2 per cent following the news that its subsidiary Masan High-Tech Materials signed an agreement to sell more than 109.9 million newly issued shares to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation to develop a high-tech tungsten materials platform.

Meanwhile, decliners expanded from banking, securities, real estate to oil and gas and aviation.

Major losers included BIDV (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), FPT Corp (FPT), PV Gas (GAS), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), Techcombank (TCB), Hoàng Huy Investment Financial Services (TCH) and sugarmaker Thành Thành Công-Biên Hòa JSC (SBT) with losses of between 2 per cent and 4 per cent each.

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), the selling pressure soared in the afternoon session pushing the VN-Index down and moved around 950 points. Investment cash flow declined when only 3 of 19 sectors gained, showing that profit-taking sentiment at the peak areas is growing.

Shares made great strides last week, pushing up many shares such as Vingroup, Vinhomes, Bảo Việt Holdings, PV Power, Hòa Phát Group, Masan Group and Vietjet. The VN-Index recorded a sixth consecutive gaining week and the number for the HNX-Index was 12.

“The VN-Index is likely not to fall deeply and remain above 940 points in the coming sessions,” BSC’s analysts said in its daily report.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also moved down, losing 1.88 per cent to close Monday at 139.03 points.

The market liquidity remained high with a total of nearly 490 million shares worth more than VNĐ9.4 trillion (US$406.4 million) traded in the two markets.

Foreign investors keep selling out, concluding Monday as net sellers on HCM City’s exchange for a value of VNĐ421 billion, but they were modest net buyers on Hà Nội’s market for VNĐ1.4 billion. — VNS