An investor watches shares move on his own laptop. Vietnamese shares fell for a fourth day on Wednesday as market caution arose ahead of the end of the year. — VNS Photo Doan Tung

Vietnamese shares extended losses for a fourth straight trading day as investors remained pessimistic about the market’s short-term outlook.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell 0.30 per cent to end Wednesday at 951.13 points.

The VN-Index has lost a total of 1.76 per cent in four straight trading days since Friday.

The benchmark index has slipped a total of nearly 7.20 per cent from its one-year high of 1,024 points made on November 6.

More than 323.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND6.7 trillion (US$288 million).

As the end of the year is approaching, the market sentiment has remained poor as investors are not willing to buy.

Instead, they tried to offload shares to increase the cash/share portfolio ratio, as local shares declined along with other markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

The VN-Index avoided falling below the support of 950 points but investors were not optimistic about the market’s short-term prospects, especially during the year-end period, and looked for the way out of all stocks, ranging from large-caps to small-caps, according to securities firms.

The VN30-Index edged down 0.49 per cent to end the day at 863.16 points. Meanwhile, mid-cap and small-cap indices slipped 0.73 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively.

The southern market was dominated by 207 declining stocks while 113 advanced. In the large-cap VN30 basket, 19 stocks lost ground while eight rose.

Among falling large-caps were retailer Mobile World (MWG), property developers Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vinhomes (VHM), steel maker Hoa Phat (HPG) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS).

The market lacked support from the likes of FLC Faros Construction (ROS), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and Vingroup (VIC), which ended flat.

Vingroup on Wednesday said it will split retail and e-commerce divisions to focus all resources in the technology and industries.

The market is forecast to undergo a rough day in the last two trading days of the week as the VN30F1912 futures will mature on Thursday and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will finalise their portfolio reviews, MB Securities Co (MBS) said in its daily report.

But the VN-Index is expected to reach the settlement level at 950 points, MBS said, adding the index could go down to 930 points in the worse outlook.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index dropped 1.06 per cent to close at 101.80 points.

The northern market index slid 0.31 per cent on Tuesday.

Nearly 42 million shares were exchanged on the northern bourse, worth VND337.7 billion. — VNS