The market was mixed on Wednesday morning, as many large-cap stocks recovered from previous losses while medium- and small-cap stocks in the real estate sector continued to face strong selling pressure.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) inched up 3.77 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 1,459.02 points.

However, the market breadth remained negative with more stocks declining.

Liquidity was also lower than yesterday with nearly VND12.82 trillion (US$560 million) worth of shares, equal to a trading volume of over 369 million shares, traded on the southern market.

The index's recovery, which claimed back some of yesterday's great losses, was driven by gains of some large-cap stocks. Of which the VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on the HoSE, rose 6.74 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 1,513.94 points.

In the VN30 basket, 18 stocks increased, while eight slid and four stayed unchanged.

Leading the rally trend was Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) with a gain of 3.33 per cent. Other stocks in the manufacturing sector supporting the index were Masan Group (MSN) and Vinamilk (VNM), up 2.71 per cent and 1.95 per cent, respectively.

But the gain was capped by sell-offs in many medium- and small-cap stocks in the real estate sector, including Ocean Group JSC (OGC), Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment JSC (CII) and Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation (HQC), all down at least 2 per cent.

Meanwhile in Ha Noi, the HNX-Index extended losses, down 2.21 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 418.8 points in the morning trade. VNS