Vietnamese shares ended Friday almost flat as investors tried exiting the local stock market, preparing for the possibility of bad news ahead.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange was up only 0.06 per cent to close the day at 980.00 points.

The benchmark index gained as much as 0.64 per cent during the day. It increased by 0.58 per cent in total this week.

The slowdown of market growth on Friday was attributed to increased selling that hit stocks that gained strongly in recent days, Thanh Cong Securities (TCSC) said in its daily report.

Retail, technology and insurance were the sectors that were brought down. The sector indices fell between 1.3 per cent and 2.1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Increased selling pressure at the end of the day meant investors decided to try offloading shares in significantly-gaining stocks, TCSC said.

Those stocks were likely to decline strongly in the short term, the Ha Noi-based brokerage company added.

Top companies in the three sectors saw their shares decline. Retailer Mobile World (MWG) dropped 2.2 per cent, insurer Bao Viet (BVH) lost 1.7 per cent and tech group FPT (FPT) fell 1.9 per cent.

Other sectors that retreated included healthcare and pharmaceuticals, seafood processing and production and building material making.

On the opposite side, real estate, securities, energy and mining, food and beverage and construction lifted the market.

Foreign investors net sold total VND228 billion (US$9.8 million) on the southern bourse, focusing on steel maker Hoa Phat (HPG), budget airline Vietjet (VJC) and Vietcombank (VCB).

As supporting information for the market was missing in August and the development of the international macroeconomy was uncertain, TCSC believed the VN-Index would not grow strongly in the short term.

Market demand would clearly be weak due to external factors and opportunities would be tough to come by on the market, the company said.

Key international events in short term included the US Federal Reserve’s meeting scheduled in September, in which investors believe there will be good news, according to MB Securities Co (MBS).

Technically, the VN-Index had met its short-term bottom of 960 points and the market could be lifted, however, growth would be modest, MBS said in its report.

Therefore, the major challenge for the Vietnamese stock market at the moment was net foreign selling, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in a note.

The selling of stocks with hot gains was normal as investors seemed happy with their short-term profitability and capital would soon switch to other sectors such as banking and brokerages, the company said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rose 0.67 per cent to end at 102.35 points.

The northern market index made a total weekly loss of 0.43 per cent.

More than VND5.2 trillion worth of 212.3 million shares was traded on the two local exchanges on Friday. — VNS