A Vietinbank office. The lender's shares jumped 5.2 per cent on Monday. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index gave up early gains despite the strong growth of financial-banking stocks as profit taking strengthened at 930 points.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged up 0.20 per cent to 925.83 points on Monday, narrowing its growth from as much as 0.99 per cent.

The market was boosted by the growth of insurance and banking sectors, which gained 4.2 per cent and 1.4 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) led the insurance sector up as the stock soared 6.2 per cent.

In the banking sector, the three State-owned lenders Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID) rose between 1.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent.

Last weekend the Government officially released a new decree that allows commercial banks, in which the State holds more than 50 per cent of the capital, to keep their profits to increase charter capital in order to strengthen their financial status against the volatility of the global markets and economy.

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) represents the State to monitor the State capital in Vietcombank, Vietinbank and BIDV. The ownership in those banks ranges from 64 per cent to 81 per cent.

But when the VN-Index tapped the 930-point level, profit taking pressure increased and pushed the market down to 925 points.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index gained only 0.04 per cent to 874.90 points. The blue-chip index rose as much as 0.95 per cent during the day.

Twelve of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity increased while 16 lost momentum. On the southern market, 127 stocks increased while 295 stocks declined.

Among other gaining large-cap stocks were consumer firm Masan (MSN), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and property firm Vinhomes (VHM).

The VN30 futures due on October 15 was up 0.39 per cent to 875.10 points on Monday after having risen as much as 0.79 per cent during the day.

The mid-cap tracker reversed to fall 0.79 per cent while the small-cap tracker extended its loss to 1.19 per cent at the end of the day.

According to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC), the market is being driven by a few large-cap stocks and that does not reflect the actual condition of the market at the moment.

The market will struggle in the coming days when profit taking gets stronger in different groups of stocks and the market will diverge on earnings and business outlook expectations, TCSC said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 0.74 per cent to 135.90 points on Monday.

The northern market rose as much as 0.92 per cent on Monday.

More than 531 million shares were traded on the two exchanges, worth nearly VND10 trillion (US$431.4 million). — VNS