The benchmark index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange closedalmost flat at 768.79 points. It finished last trading week at 768.97 points.
Nearly 169.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse,worth 3.34 trillion VND (148.7 million USD).
August 21’s trading volume was 13.5 percent lower than that of August18 while trading value increased slightly.
Large-cap stocks were to blame for pulling the main exchange downon August 21 as half of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisationdeclined, causing the VN30 Index to fall nearly 0.1 percent.
Decliners included freshly-listing VPBank (VPB), steel producer HoaPhat Group (HPG), insurance-finance group Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and propertydeveloper Novaland (NVL).
Shares of brokerage firms were also negative. An Phat SecuritiesCo (APG) was the only rising securities stock, which gained 0.3 percent whileothers saw their values decrease, including BIDV Securities (BSI), HCM CitySecurities (HCM) and Vietinbank Securities (CTS).
Foreign investors remaining net sellers also worsened marketsentiment, posting a net sell value of 58.6 billion VND, an increase of nearly300 percent from August 18.
According to securities firms, investor confidence has remainedlow over recent weeks as the stock market had performed weaker than it had inthe first seven months of the year.
Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities Co (SHS) wrote in its daily report thatthe VN Index recorded its sixth up-and-down session on August 21 with decliningtrading liquidity.
“That shows a large number of investors were standing by andobserving the market with caution because the market is becoming weaker than itwas in the previous seven months.”
While the VN Index has failed to surpass the level of 770 points,it has also remained below its upward trend line that was established in Apriland signals negative trading sessions ahead, Bao Viet Securities (BVSC) said inits note.
The market conditions were negative as trading liquidity remainedcomparatively lower than the average of the previous 21 trading days whiledeclining stocks outnumbered gaining ones, proving that investor sentiment wasweak in general, BVSC said.
Therefore, BVSC said the main market trend in the next fewsessions would be negative while SHS said the VN Index would move narrowlybetween 762 points and 778 points.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index added 0.30 percent toend at 101.13 points with nearly 46 million shares being exchanged, worth 594billion VND.-VNA