Vietnamese shares edged down Monday as profit-taking pressure rose in final minutes bringing stocks down, despite growth in the petroleum sectors.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.42 per cent to close at 1,012.88 points. It gained total 1.41 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 0.65 per cent to end at 115.52 points after having increased by total 0.41 per cent in the previous week.

More than 306 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND6.7 trillion (US$298 million).

The petroleum sector was the major boost for the stock market on Monday with the sector index rising 1.6 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) and PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) drove the industry up, gaining between 3.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent.

The growth of petroleum stocks was attributed to the stable increases of oil prices for the last 1-1/2 months.

Brent crude was up 0.45 per cent to trade at its one-year high of $83.10 a barrel and has risen a total 17.4 per cent since August 15.

Property developers also had a good day, led by Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corp (KBC), Thang Long Investment Group (TIG) and Vingroup (VIC).

Vingroup’s automobile arm Vinfast on Oct 2nd will display its first two cars at the Paris Motor Show 2018. VIC inched up 0.2 per cent on Monday.

But the main driving element for real estate firms was what happened late Saturday when the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) proposed the Prime Minister and the State Bank of Viet Nam allow financial institutions to lend at the maximum 45 per cent of their short-term capital for mid- and long-term loans.

Under the central bank’s Circular 19/2017, financial institutions can only making loans at the maximum 40 per cent of their short-term capital for mid- and long-term loans. The rate in 2018 is 45 per cent.

The latest proposal is considered a way to encourage real estate firms, customers and investors to tap in the capital and meet the demand of the real estate market, HoREA said in its statement.

Foreign investors were net buyers with total purchase value of VND31.2 billion, focusing on Sacombank (STB) and steel producer Hoa Phat Group (HPG). STB rose 2.6 per cent and HPG edged up 0.2 per cent.

Despite strong gains of petroleum and real estate stocks, the market suffered from late-minutes selling that either narrowed stocks’ intraday growth or made them end on the negative note, according to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS).

The sharp increase of trading liquidity on Monday also proved selling was quite strong, especially when the benchmark VN Index approached the 1,025 point level, SHS said in its daily report.

Though those signals indicate the market would encounter a tough trading session ahead, SHS forecast the VN Index may recover on Tuesday on bargain hunting. — VNS