Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’sbenchmark VN Index fell slightly on October 26 as large-cap stocks traded inthe negative territory on strong investor selling.

The HCM Stock Exchange’s index incheddown 0.07 percent to close at 830.11 points, stepping back from a two-dayincrease of nearly 1.3 percent.

More than 187.4 million shares weretraded on the southern bourse, worth 4 trillion VND (178.3 million USD).

The trading figures represented anincrease of 17 percent in volume and a decline of 7.2 percent in value comparedto October 25.

The market breadth was negative with185 declining stocks, 77 gaining and 51 stocks that closed flat.

Large-cap stocks underperformed as 19of the 30 top companies by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in theVN30 Index saw share prices drop.

Among the worst decliners werePetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Kinh Bac City Development Holding (KBC) and Thanh ThanhCong Tay Ninh Sugar Co (SBT).

However, the VN30 Index managed to rise0.13 percent to 822.53 points on the back of FLC Faros Construction (ROS) andfood and beverage producers Masan (MSN), Sabeco (SAB) and Vinamilk (VNM).

Shares of banks and brokerage companiescontributed to the decline of the benchmark index.

Six of the seven bank stocks on the HCMStock Exchange declined, including Vietcombank (VCB), MBBank (MBB) and Bank forInvestment and Development of Vietnam (BID).

VCB lost 0.4 percent and MBB declinedby 0.9 percent after having gained a total of 2.1 percent and 2.2 percent inthe previous two sessions.

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Among declining brokerage stocks werethe largest firms such as Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), HCM City Securities(HCM) and Viet Capital Securities (VCI).

HCM fell 2 percent following itstwo-session gain of total 4.1 percent, while SSI and VCI lost steam afteradvancing on October 25.

According to Bao Viet Securities Co’sanalyst Tran Xuan Bach, the benchmark index offered little indication of how itwould move in the upcoming sessions, though it was saved by investors’ pick-uppurchases.

The market depended heavily onlarge-cap stocks, which underperformed on Thursday, indicating that investorswere becoming more cautious with the market conditions, Bach said in a companynote.

Such underperformance and divergence oflarge-cap stocks also increased pressure on mid-cap and small-cap ones,signaling possible further drops for the VN Index in the next sessions, hesaid.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNXIndex lost 1.01 percent to end at 106.31 points. The northern market index hadadvanced total 1.1 percent in the previous two sessions.

Nearly 57.2 million shares were tradedon the northern bourse, worth 650 billion VND.-VNA