Shares traded positively on Tuesday but investors dumped a huge amount of stocks at the close to collect intra-day profits.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained 0.05 per cent to close at 976.79 points.

The VN-Index lost 0.15 per cent on Monday.

Nearly 192.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4.5 trillion (US$194 million).

The market breadth was neutral on Tuesday with 191 shares gaining versus 123 declining.

The large-cap VN30-Index increased by 0.30 per cent to stand at 897.50 points.

On a sector basis, 14 of the 20 sectors saw share prices rising, including information and technology, retail, healthcare, oil and gas, banking, agriculture, rubber production, food and beverage, seafood production, construction materials, construction and logistics.

On the opposite side, six of the 20 sectors saw share prices drop, including real estate, securities and wholesale.

Large-caps like Petrovietnam Fertiliser & Chemicals Corporation (DPM), Vingroup (VIC), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), brewery Sabeco (SAB), Novaland (NVL) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) all declined due to profit-taking and put pressure on the overall market. DPM decreased by 3.4 per cent, BVH lost 1 per cent, GAS dropped 1.1 per cent, SAB was down 1.3 per cent and VIC slid 0.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the rise of other pillars helped maintain the market rally. VPBank (VPB) increased 1.2 per cent, Vinhomes (VHM) rose 0.1 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE) climbed 0.9 per cent, Mobile World Group (MWG) rose 1.3 per cent and Military Bank (MBB) was up 1.1 per cent.

According to Viet Dragon Securities Corporation (VDSC), this week, the last trading week of November, the stock market would continue to face a lack of supportive information, while investor confidence had deteriorated following a worsening economic outlook.

The amended draft law on securities may be passed by the National Assembly this week. However, this alone might not be able to strongly support the market in the short term, VDSC said.

On Tuesday, foreign investors were net sellers of VND205 billion on the whole market, focusing on Vietcombank (VCB) (VND37.3 billion), Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) (VND23.6 billion), Vingroup (VIC) (VND16.94 billion) and Sacombank (STB) (VND15.76 billion).

This could be attributed to the portfolio re-shaping of iShare MSCI Frontier 100 ETF. However, the value of Vietnamese stocks in the fund’s portfolio was only about $70 million, so the market was unlikely to see much change, VDSC said.

Investors needed to pay due attention to foreign capital flows. If they returned to be net buyers, the VN-Index could pass 1,000 points again this week, otherwise the index could drop to the 955 points recorded in August, VDSC said.

VDSC recommended that investors focus on portfolio risk management instead of seeking profits in the short term.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index climbed 0.51 per cent to end Tuesday at 103.99 points.

More than 22.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND148 billion.

The northern market index advanced 0.37 per cent on Monday. — VNS