The VN-Index fell for an eighth consecutive session on Monday due to increased selling pressure at the end of the trading session.
The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.41 per cent to close at 908.56 points.
The southern market fell a total 4.18 per cent after all five trading days of last week.
The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange dropped 1.06 per cent to end at 103.34 points.
The northern market index lost a total 2.07 per cent last week.
More than 238 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND5.4 trillion (US$230 million).
Large-cap companies performed well with the blue-chip VN30 Index rising 0.06 per cent to 873.64 points.
Meanwhile, market breadth was negative with 262 stocks declining and 159 gaining, while 333 ended flat.
Selling pressure hurt 13 sectors of the stock market, with insurance, securities, mining and banking firms the biggest sufferers.
The four industry indices lost between 1.68 and 4.8 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.
Bank stocks lost across the board, typically Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Military Bank (MBB), respectively slid by 2.6 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 2.4 per cent.
Oil-gas stocks fell by 4.8 per cent, dragged by PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) (-6.9 per cent), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) (-6.0 per cent) and Petro Vietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (-2.9 per cent).
Saigon-Hanoi Securities Company (SHS) said the fall of the US market for six consecutive sessions last week hurt the Vietnamese market today.
Trading liquidity remained under moderate levels, showing that investors cautious in the last trading week of 2018, it said.
The market would likely struggle to accumulate during the 900-930 point range in the week and when VN-Index touches the 900-point level, it would attract cash flow, SHS said in its daily report.
The company forecast that on Tuesday, VN-Index will continue the downward momentum to re-test the buying demand when the indice approaches 900 points.
“We recommend that investors should temporarily stop buying and selling activities in this period and stay out of the market to wait for a clearer trend in the future,” SHS said.
According to Bao Viet Securities Company, in the next sessions, the VN-Index is forecast to move in a narrow range on low liquidity. — VNS