Trading was sluggish as investors were cautious before the market closed for a five-day public holiday with the benchmark indices seen closing down on both bourse.

The VN-Index on the southern bourse ended 0.17 percent lower, at 587 points, while the HNX-Index on Hanoi Exchange lost 0.86 percent to end at 79.88 points.

Last week, the market was only open on April 28-29 and resumes operating on May 5.

Responding to the long holiday, investors did not want to join in trading, resulting in declining liquidity over previous weeks.

On Hochiminh Stock Exchange, an average of 54 million shares were traded, worth some 1.1 trillion VND (52.3 million USD) per trading day, respectively 29 percent and 15 percent lower than the previous week.

The average trading volume and value on Hanoi Exchange were 34 million shares and nearly 345 billion VND (16.8 million USD).

Large-cap stocks had a great impact on the market's gains and losses last week, which dragged down the benchmark indices on both national stock exchanges on April 28, but pushed up the indices on the day after.

On April 28, the VN-Index slid 1.01 percent as blue chips tumbled, such as Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM), Vingroup (VIC), Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH). According to Vietstock.vn, the large-cap stocks contributed 0.8 percent of the 1.01 percent drop on April 28.

However, blue chips, including PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS), Masan Group (MSN), Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB) and BIDV (BID), advanced on April 29, contributing 0.82 percent of the 0.85 percent gain on the VN-Index.

Foreign investors closed last week as net buyers with a net value of 18.2 billion VND (8.6 million USD), which was modest in comparison with previous weeks.-VNA