Viet Nam’s benchmark VN Index ended its six-day rally as investor confidence was dampened by negative developments of the US-China trade dispute but strong purchases helped offset some of the losses.

The benchmark index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched down 0.03 per cent to close at 987.05 points after gaining 1.9 per cent since the beginning of the week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange rose 1.00 per cent to end at 111.62 points, totalling a two-day increase of 1.48 per cent.

The northern market recorded weekly growth of 3.33 per cent.

More than 225 million shares were traded on the two bourses, worth VND5.27 trillion (US$234.5 million).

Friday’s trading liquidity figures was up 25 per cent in volume and 32 per cent in value compared to the previous session.

The Vietnamese stock market moved along with Asia stocks after trade talks between China and the US showed no progress and tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated.

The VN-Index lost 0.45 per cent during Friday’s session before bottom-picking helped narrow the loss.

Market liquidity was positive with 245 stocks gaining and 209 decliners. However, on a sector basis, 11 of the 20 sector indices ended in negative territory.

Among the worst-performing sectors were real estate, securities, food and beverages, and insurance-finance. Those sector indices were down between 0.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the opposite side, energy, construction and technology stocks helped cushion the blow.

Large-cap stocks were mixed with 11 of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket falling, dragging the blue-chip VN30 Index down 0.05 per cent to 960.42 points.

Foreign investors recorded modest net buying value of VND2.1 billion, compared to net sales value of VND128.6 billion on Thursday.

According to Viet Dragon Securities JSC (VDSC), the risk had not spared the market yet even though the number of gaining stocks was still higher than that of losers.

The market needed another bullish session to confirm the trend, VDSC said in its daily report. — VNS