Shares retreated this morning after two consecutive losing sessions, as investors became cautious ahead of the American central bank meeting. – Photo vneconomy.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) – Shares retreated this morning after two consecutive losing sessions, as investors became cautious ahead of the American central bank meeting.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was down 0.2 per cent to close at 659.3 points.

The losers outnumbered the gainers by 98 to 80, while 132 ended unchanged.

Blue chips slumped, with nearly half of the top 30 stocks by market capitalisation losing value, including heavyweight shares such as real estate giant VinGroup (VIC), private equity firm Masan Group (MSN), Vietinbank (CTG) and PV Gas (GAS).

Some managed to close almost unchanged, such as dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), Vietcombank (VCB), lender BIDV (BID) and insurance firm Bao Viet Holdings (BVH).

Nearly 56 million shares, worth VND1.25 trillion (US$56 million), were traded by the end of the morning.

On the smaller exchange in Ha Noi, the HNX-Index also inched down 0.2 per cent to end at 83 points.

Liquidity was low, with 14.3 million shares worth VND178 billion being exchanged.

Steelmakers and real estate companies were leading the trading on the two markets, as seven of the 10 most active stocks were from these stocks. Steel manufacturing firm Hoa Phat Group saw the maximum trading, with more than four million of its shares being exchanged.

The afternoon session starts at 1pm. – VNS