Vietnamese stocks snapped a four-day winning streak on Friday, facing strong selling from investors, as they sought profits from those firms that made significant gains during the last sessions.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.28 per cent to close at 1,053.00 points. The index had gained 3 per cent in the last four days.

Market breadth was negative with 135 gainers and 256 decliners.

Some 509 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VND8.7 trillion (US$367.5 million).

The possibility of shaking will continue in the next session but it is expected that the cash flow will continue to support when the market gradually moves towards the resistance zone of 1,070 – 1,090 points at VN-Index in the near future, said Viet Dragon Securities Co.

“Therefore, investors can expect the market's ability to recover, and look for short-term opportunities in the correction in stocks that have maintained a positive trend over time. However, it is still necessary to control the appropriate proportion of the portfolio because the current recovery span may only have short-term and technical factors,” said the company.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, dropped 0.29 per cent to reach 1,047.20 points. In the basket, eight stocks climbed, one stayed flat and 20 slid.

Banking stocks lost ground with most of the stocks in the basket declining, including Vietinbank (CTG), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB), National Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NVB), Military Bank (MBB), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietcombank (VCB).

VPBank (VPB) was the only gainer in the banking group.

Energy stocks also suffered selling pressure with losers such as Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PV OIL (OIL).

Securities stocks decreased towards the end of the session. VN-Index's loss was significantly broadened as securities stocks declined strongly, such as VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) and Viet Capital Incorporation (VCI).

On a sector basis, 23 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, real estate, food and beverage, retail, seafood production, and plastic and chemical production.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) declined 0.56 per cent to close Friday at 207.86 points.

Nearly 66 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VND976 billion. — VNS