The market traded in different directions on the last trading of the week, with rising selling pressure weighing on investors' sentiment.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended slightly higher on Friday at 1,059.31 points, up 1.02 points, or 0.1 per cent.

However, on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index declined 0.89 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 209.95 points.

The selling pressure was quite clear in the last trading session of the week as the market’s breadth inclined to the downside.

Especially, 175 stocks on the HoSE decreased and 146 ticker symbols inched higher, while on the northern bourse, 88 stocks hit lower and 66 stocks finished up.

Liquidity of the two main exchanges remained at low levels and decreased slightly by 3 per cent compared to the previous session to a total of over VND7.8 trillion (US$327.5 million). Of which, the matching value on HoSE was similar to the February 16 session of nearly VND7 trillion.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on the southern exchange, dropped 1.54 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 1,053.72 points.

In the VN30 basket, 18 stocks went down, while nine settled higher, and three ended flat.

Leading the market’s bearish trend were manufacturing stocks, with the biggest loser being Masan Group (MSN), down 1.72 per cent.

It was followed by Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Sabeco (SAB), down 1.41 per cent and 1.37 per cent, respectively.

Others stocks influencing the down risk were PV Gas (GAS), VPBank (VPB), Vinamilk (VNM), MBBank (MBB) and Petrolimex (PLX).

The market’s benchmark VN-Index pared losses and inched higher on gains in some large-cap stocks. Particularly, BIDV (BID) saw the greatest gain in market capitalisation of 1.78 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to be net sellers on the market. Of which, they net sold VND12.28 billion on HoSE, while net bought a value of VND9.56 billion on HNX.

Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Stock Exchange (SHS) said that in a medium-long-term perspective, even if the benchmark VN-Index breaks below 1,050 to return to the medium-term downtrend, there are still two important support levels of 1,000 and 950 points. “Therefore, we still expect the VN-Index to form a medium-long term bottom of 950 points,” said SHS.

In the short term, SHS expected that it is highly likely that the market is moving in the recovery wave and is quite positive, especially after the past three consecutive recovery sessions, while for the medium term, the benchmark will enter the balance and accumulation zone after the recovery period. — VNS