The Vietnamese stock market settled lower on Friday due to weakened sentiment amid macro instability.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 0.27 per cent, to close Friday at 1,052.48 points.

More than 881.5 million shares worth VND15.5 trillion (US$658 million) were traded in the southern market.

The market breadth was neutral with 195 losers and 208 gainers. Another 85 stocks closed flat.

The year 2022 is about to end with many difficulties in the context of high inflation causing macro instability, central banks raising interest rates to curb rising inflation, volatile commodity prices and "zero-COVID" policy in China affecting global supply chains, said ACB Securities Co (ACBS).

In a recent report, ACBS said that the global outlook will be more positive in 2023, although perhaps not until the second half of the year as macro difficulties are expected to continue until early 2024.

Domestically, anti-corruption efforts will be effective in increasing market transparency and some credit constraints affecting businesses will ease in 2023, ACBS said.

Based on the above assessment, ACBS proposes different scenarios for VN-Index at the end of 2023.

In the base scenario, ACBS team assumes that Viet Nam's economy will continue to grow and corporate profits will increase in the range of 8-10 per cent.

Global macro difficulties will largely subside by the end of 2023 and central banks will complete their monetary tightening cycle, which will ease pressure on the Vietnamese dong and allow the SBV to review monetary policy.

The optimistic scenario is based on strong public investment in 2023, a faster-than-expected recovery of the domestic real estate market and continued strong FDI inflows.

The global economy will keep inflation under control in the first half of 2023 and investor sentiment will improve thanks to the easing of global monetary policy.

With these assumptions, earnings of businesses increase by 17-20 per cent, bringing the VN-Index up to about 1,550 points by year-end.

The VN-30 Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, declined 0.38 per cent to close at 1,064.07 points.

In the VN-30 basket, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Khang Dien House (KDH), Masan Group (MSN), Sabeco (SAB), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB), Vimhomes (VHM), Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC), Military Bank (MBB) were among the worst performers.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.02 per cent to close at 212.99 points.

Trading value on the northern exchange reached VND1.3 trillion, with trading volume of 101.7 million shares. — VNS