Viet Nam’s benchmark VN Index declined on Wednesday as selling pressure increased after the index approached its old peak of 1,000 points.

The HCM Stock Exchange’s index lost 0.71 per cent to close at 988.17 points, ending a two-day increase of 0.82 per cent.

The VN Index had gained a total of 3.52 per cent since August 15 to touch its two-month high of 995.19 points on Tuesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange gained 0.48 per cent to end Wednesday at 112.78 points, the highest since June 18. It has risen a total of 4.5 per cent since August 16.

Nearly 216.3 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth VND4.66 trillion (US$207.2 million).

The VN Index started declining at the beginning of Wednesday session and continued to slide until the end of the day, losing as much as 0.77 per cent.

The last session marked the first loss for the benchmark VN Index after its recent rally with trading liquidity lower than the average of the previous 10 sessions.

According to the Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS), that was a normal move for the benchmark index after it neared the old peak of 1,000 points, thus triggering investors to sell stocks for profits.

The market trading condition was negative with 181 gaining stocks, 250 decliners and 107 other stocks ending flat.

Selling pressure pulled several key industries down, including banking-finance, real estate, energy, food and beverages and construction.

Those sector indices fell between 0.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Large-cap shares also suffered from profit-taking pressure as the blue chip VN30 Index shed 0.62 per cent to 964.99 points with 22 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket ending in the negative territory.

Among decliners were FLC Faros Construction (ROS), petrol seller Petrolimex (PLX), Coteccons Construction Corp (CTD), Vietcombank (VCB), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and property developer Vingroup (VIC).

Foreign investors turned to net sellers with total net sell value of VND146 billion. They net-bought nearly VND300 billion worth of local stocks on Tuesday.

Bao Viet Securities JSC (BVSC) said in its daily report that as selling pressure may continue in coming sessions, the index’s short-term downtrend will continue.

The VN Index may fall back to the 983-987 point range in coming days, BVSC forecast, adding that this range is also expected to help the VN Index consolidate and recover. — VNS