Bluechips were mixed. The VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by marketvalue and liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange, inched up just 0.08percent to end at 622.91 points.
Bank stocks led the downturn here as most of large-cap lenders posted losses.
Vietinbank(CTG) was the biggest loser, down 3.65 percent, followed by Vietcombank(VCB) with a decrease of 3.07 percent. VCB is the biggest stock in termof market capitalisation so its slump substantially weighed down thesouthern market.
Other banks like Military Bank (MBB), Eximbank (EIB) and BIDV (BID) also dropped 1.5 to 2 percent.
"Manyinvestors decided to take margins when the market approached thesentimental threshold of 600 points," analysts at FPT Securities Cowrote in a report on the company's website on July 1.
Overallliquidity declined from June 30 with the market volume being down 10percent to reach 133.3 million shares while value of trades declined 20percent to over 2.2 trillion VND (101 million USD).
Propertydeveloper FLC Group (FLC) continued to top the market with a whoppingtrade of 11.5 million shares, closing flat at 8,600 VND a share.
Onthe Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index managed a gain of 0.36 percentto finish at 85.25 points on July 1 thanks to rallies of blue chips.
Membersof the HNX30, which includes the 30 biggest stocks in terms of marketvalue and liquidity in the Hanoi market such as Asia Commercial Bank(ACB), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) and construction giantVinaconex (VCG), boosted the market.
However, trading slowed downas both market volume and value decreased 30 percent from June 30,totalling more than 40 million shares worth 511.2 billion VND (23.4million USD).
F.I.T Investment Co (FIT) remained the most active code with 3.5 million shares, closing 1.6 percent lower at 12,600 VND each.
Foreigninvestors continued to buy shares in the two markets, but their net buyvalues were tiny at just nearly 23 billion VND (1.1 million USD) onJuly 1, down substantially compared with a net buy of 457 billion VND(21 million USD) seen on June 30.-VNA