HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares curbed their gains on Tuesday as selling increased when the benchmark VN-Index approached the 900-point level.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.19 per cent to close Tuesday at 896.26 points.

The southern market index gained as much as 0.46 per cent during the day to near 900 points.

The VN-Index has totalled a two-day increase of 0.82 per cent.

Realty, technology, healthcare and medical, and securities sectors helped boost the market while insurance, aquaculture and construction industries weighed on the market.

The best-performers in the four sectors included Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE), tech group FPT Corp (FPT), DHG Pharmaceuticals (DHG), HCM City Securities (HCM), and MB Securities (MBS).

The large-cap stocks weakened towards the end of the day as the blue-chip index VN30 rose only 0.13 per cent.

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks also narrowed their gains. The two sector indices were up 0.17 per cent and 0.15 per cent, respectively.

Sài Gòn Thương Tín Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Sacombank) stock was the most active code on the market with more than 24 million shares being traded.

The bank shares (STB) gained 2.7 per cent to end at VNĐ11,600 apiece.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fought to remain positive, rising 0.39 per cent to 127.93 points.

The northern market index gained a total of 1.36 per cent in the first two trading days of the week.

More than 443.7 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth VNĐ7.43 trillion (US$321 million).

Foreign investors continued net-selling local assets. They sold a total net value of VNĐ365 billion worth of Vietnamese shares, down 19.2 per cent from the previous day.

The local market struggled a bit on Tuesday and the market progress was narrowed as large-cap stocks varied on increased selling pressure, Thành Công Securities (TCSC) said in its daily report.

Given high trading liquidity on Tuesday, the market would remain positive in the short term, the company said.

But the 900-point level would remain a difficult challenge for the market and it would keep struggling with this resistance at the moment, TCSC said.

In the coming days, the VN-Index would swing between 875 points and 905 points and leading sectors would vary on hopes for the third-quarter earnings reports, the company forecast. — VNS