Vietnamese shares struggled on Friday on low liquidity and falling large-caps stocks as selling pressure persisted.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched down 0.12 per cent to end the session at 1,351.17 points.

The index had gone up 0.15 per cent to end Thursday at 1,352.76 points.

Liquidity dropped sharply compared to the previous session with some 673 million shares worth nearly VND18.3 trillion (US$805.3 million) traded on the southern exchange.

The blue-chip share tracker VN30-Index climbed 0.12 per cent to 1,459.94 points.

Nineteen of the 30 largest stocks by market valuation and trading liquidity decreased while seven increased. Four stayed unchanged.

The banking group outperformed in the afternoon trading session and strongly supported the market, with gainers including Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MBB) and Vietinbank (CTG).

However, many blue-chips lost ground and put great pressure on the overall market such as Masan Group (MSN), Vincom Retail (VRE), PVPower (POW) and Mobile World Group (MWG), all falling more than 1 per cent.

On a sector basis, the Vietnamese stock market was supported by the banking and insurance sectors.

Their sector indices rose 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, data on vietstock.vn showed.

On the other side, losers included insurance, technology, logistics, rubber production, food and beverage, wholesale, food and beverage, construction materials and real estate sectors.

Investor sentiment was weak, proven by the trading liquidity that remained lower than the average of the previous 21 sessions while losing stocks continued to outnumber gaining ones, financial news site vietstock.vn said, adding that investors were clearly cautious and were running out of patience with the market’s prospects.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.39 per cent, to end at 359.63 points.

It had lost 0.66 per cent, to close Thursday at 361.02 points.

During the session, some 135 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth nearly VND2.5 trillion. — VNS