Shares edged down on the two national stock exchanges on Monday, led by large caps which declined steeply under strong profit-taking selling pressure.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange closed Monday down 0.82 per cent at 820.04 points. The southern market index decreased 0.25 per cent on Friday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gave up 1.76 per cent to end at 106.24 points. The northern market index lost 1.55 per cent in the last three sessions last week.

The overall market condition was negative with 347 stocks falling, 123 rising and 241 remaining unchanged in the two markets.

Large-cap stocks were the main drag as 24 of the top 30 largest stocks in terms of market value and liquidity on the HCM City exchange tumbled and just five advanced.

Losers spanned from the finance and energy to the steelmaking, retail and pharmaceutical industries.

All 10 listed banks on the two exchanges lost value, of which the Big Four (the four largest banks by market value and total assets) – Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), BIDV (BID) and Military Bank (MBB) – decreased between 1.3-2.6 per cent.

Securities and insurance companies were also among decliners. Big names that had a losing day include Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), HCM Securities (HCM), VNDirect Securities (VND) and Bao Viet Securities (BVS).

Other companies that negatively affected the overall market outlook included PV Gas (GAS), Vietjet Air (VJC), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Masan Group (MSN), Mobile Word Group (MWG) and Hau Giang Pharmaceutical (DHG).

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVS), the growth of large caps was slowed by rising profit-taking selling pressure.

“Investors prefer strategy of ‘buy the rumor and sell the news’, following which they sold out many shares after these companies announced their third-quarter results,” BVS’s analysts wrote in a note.

Among the few gainers on Monday, shares of FLC Faros Construction Corp (ROS) continue to rise 6.7 per cent, lifting its rallying streak to 18 sessions in a row. ROS price has climbed 42.7 per cent in nearly one month, from VND105,700 a share late in September to nearly VND151,000 (US$6.65) a share on Monday.

The market is losing momentum to rise and entering the value accumulation period, BVS analysts said, predicting the market will likely expand divergence when the earning reporting season has gone one-third of the way.

Liquidity improved with a total of 264 million shares worth nearly VND5.2 trillion ($229 million) being traded in the two markets, up 16.7 per cent in volume and 8.6 per cent in value compared to last week’s average daily trading volume and value. – VNS