Vietnamese shares fell on Friday, ending a three-day rise, as investors continued seeking short-term profits on the last day of exchange-traded funds’ review.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange edged down 0.43 per cent to close at 1,004.12 points.

The southern market index had gained total 2.41 per cent in the previous three trading days and climbed above the milestone of 1,000 points.

For the whole week, the VN-Index gained total 1.91 per cent.

More than 250.2 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VND6.5 trillion (US$279.5 million).

The figures were up 11.5 per cent in volume and 35 per cent in value from Thursday’s numbers as the two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – FTSE Vietnam ETF and VNM ETF – tried to finish their quarterly portfolio reviews in the last minutes of Friday session.

Two realty firms – Vinhomes (VHM) and Vingroup (VIC) – were down 0.7 per cent and 0.1 per cent as the two ETFs decided to unload an amount of the companies’ shares from their portfolios.

Retail firms, consumer staple companies, and seafood processing and agricultural businesses were among poorly-performing sectors on Friday.

Investors tried to offload those stocks following their recent increases.

Among those stocks, digital retailer Mobile World (MWG) dropped 0.4 per cent, totalling a two-day fall of 0.8 per cent.

In the food and beverage sector, dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) lost 0.1 per cent to total a three-day decline of 1.4 per cent.

Financials recorded slower growth rates. Bank and insurance stocks narrowed their gains while brokerage shares retreated from previous increases.

Vietcombank (VCB) dropped 1.5 per cent after having rallied total 6.9 per cent in the previous three days.

Other bank stocks that also stepped down included TPBank (TPB), Techcombank (TCB) and Sacombank (STB).

According to Thanh Cong Securities (TCSC), after a three-day rally investors were clearly cautious amid strong selling pressure that hit large-cap stocks, pulling stock indices down.

However, as the VN-Index fell slightly and was kept above 1,000 points, there was proof that the market sentiment was not too low and there was more room for further improvement, it said.

The VN-Index would encounter stronger selling in the next few days as large-cap stocks were hit and the index would fluctuate around the corner, TCSC added.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index gained 0.39 per cent to end at 110.44 points.

The northern market index has gained total 2.05 per cent this week. — VNS