HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese markets failed to maintain their upward trend on Tuesday as blue-chips and banking stocks dropped, pressuring indices.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index edged down 0.01 per cent to end at 1,476.02 points.

It had gained 0.87 per cent to end Monday at 1,476.21 points.

The market's breadth was negative with 194 gainers and 265 losers.

As many as 964 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ27.7 trillion (US$1.2 billion).

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, lost 0.29 per cent, to end at 1,516.44 points. Nineteen out of 30 stocks in the VN30 basket posted losses, while nine increased.

In the VN-30 basket, notable losers included Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ), down 2.1 per cent, Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR) losing 3.7 per cent, Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN) dropping 1.8 per cent, The Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR) falling 1.7 per cent, Vingroup (VIC) declining 0.7 per cent, Vietjet (VJC) losing 1.4 per cent, VPBank (VPB) falling 1.1 per cent and Vincom Retail (VRE) losing 0.8 per cent.

One of the worst sectors was banking, pressured by VPBank (VPB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB), Vietcombank (VCB), HDBank (HDB), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), Techcombank (TCB), Eximbank (EIB) and Vietinbank (CTG).

“Opening the morning session with a positive move, despite strong profit-taking pressure, VN-Index still gained nearly 10 points. However, when approaching the old resistance level of 1,480 points, the index reversed to end lower,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Liquidity improved but was still insignificant and did not surpass the 20-day moving average. Market breadth tilted to the negative with losers outnumbered gainers.

“Regarding the transactions of foreign investors, they were net sellers on HoSE and net buyers on HNX. It can be said that the cash flow still supports the market's uptrend, so far there have been no significant obstacles for VN-Index to reach 1,500 points,” it said.

Eleven out of 25 sector indices on the stock market posted losses, including IT, securities, oil and gas, banking, logistics and construction.

On the other side, gainers were retail, seafood production, insurance, wholesale and healthcare, rubber production, agriculture, and construction materials, and food and beverage.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 0.63 per cent, to 454.68 points.

The index had risen 0.51 per cent, to end Monday at 457.56 points.

During the session, investors poured over VNĐ3 trillion into the market, equivalent to a trading volume of 108.1 million shares. — VNS