Vietnamese shares changed little on Tuesday as investors remained cautious amid uncertainty about the market’s short-term prospects.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange ended at 969.79 points, almost level to its Monday close of 970.07 points.

The southern market index has declined by total 1.92 per cent in the last two trading days.

More than 175.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND3.73 trillion (US$160.4 million).

The VN-Index opened Tuesday on a positive note in the morning session, rising as much as 0.92 per cent in the early trade before selling pressure kept it down in the remaining period of the trading day.

The bounce back came after investors hunted for stocks that had declined sharply on Monday, on which the VN-Index dropped 1.89 per cent.

Vietnamese shares moved little as a technical recovery in the early morning trade was not enough to boost the market sentiment, indicating more declining sessions to come, according to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS).

Mixed performance of large-cap stocks were attributed for the market’s slight fall on Tuesday.

Investors scooped up large-cap stocks, pushing the blue-chip VN30-Index up 0.13 per cent to 894.58 per cent at the end of the day with half of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket advancing.

Among large-cap gainers were Coteccons Construction Corp (CTD), SSI Securities (SSI), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN), residential real estate firm Vinhomes (VHM), and Vietinbank (CTG).

Those stocks gained between 0.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

It was obvious that investors would stand by and watch the market move for a few days and wait until local stocks settle and have positive signals, according to MB Securities Corp (MBS).

“After the Monday sell-off, investors were cautious, weighing on large-cap stocks with selling pressure. So any gain would only mean a technical recovery,” MBS said in its daily report.

But in general, the sell-off on Monday had sent stocks down to their cheaper price levels, triggering purchasing power among risk-hungry investors and helping the market sentiment stabilise, MBS added.

“The 960-point milestone would be the threshold for the VN-Index in the next few days” and it was expected to “move sideways between 960 and 980 points in the remaining trading days,” SHS said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was up 0.41 per cent to end at 106.85 points.

The northern market index inched up 0.12 per cent on Monday.

More than 31 million shares, worth VND476.7 billion, were traded on the northern market. — VNS