Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index started the week on a low note following Friday’s trend, leaving investors hoping for a rally following corrections.

The shares of 179 companies and four mutual funds on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 6.34 points or 1.03 percent to close at 609.34. Trading cooled by 37 percent in volume and 35 percent in value compared to the record high last Friday.

A total of 86.9 million shares worth nearly VND4.2 trillion (US$ million) changed hands.

The result matched the forecast of 21.7 percent of responses to a survey by local newswire Vnexpress.net last week while 58.1 percent expected the index to jump past 620 points.

Declines far outnumbered gains by 139 to 32 while 12 shares remained unchanged.

According to analysts, such short-term correction is needed before the southern shares start a new rally, hopefully to 625 this week.

Declines in the southern market were led by Long An Food Processing Export Joint Stock Co. (LAF) in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, the HCMC City-based Lu Gia Mechanical Electric Joint Stock Co. (LGC), and seafood exporter NTACO Corp. (ATA) in the delta province of An Giang.

Vietnam’s largest listed brokerage Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) came back to the spot of most active shares with around 4.4 million shares changing hands, overcoming Viet-Han Corp. which produces cable wire in central Quang Nam Province and had nearly 4 million shares traded on the city bourse Monday. Saigon Commercial Bank or Sacombank (STB) remained in the top active three with 3.57 million shares traded.

The HNX-Index also fell further to 209.77, down 2.10 percent or 4.50 points over last Friday. Nearly 41.9 million shares worth VND1.95 trillion changed hands.

UPCoM-Index did not perform any better dropping 0.28 points or 0.37 percent to 74.77. The trade volume shrank to 89,700 with VND1.04 billion spent.

On the global market, Asian stocks gained, led by automakers and consumer companies.