Vietnam's Hanoi stock market declined this week, mainly because investors continued to maintain circumspect on trading activities.

The HNX-Index, the benchmark of the Hanoi Stock Exchange, closed at 100.83 points on Friday, up 0.34 points, or 0.34 percent, against the previous trading session.

Comparing to last Friday's closure, the index decreased 0.03 points, or 0.02 percent.

During the week, the index went two ups and three downs, reaching the highest level of 101.74 points on Wednesday and the lowest level of 100.49 points on Thursday.

Comparing to the previous trading week, the benchmark ranged between 100.86 points and 102.4 points.

Over 51.249 million shares worth some 554.864 billion Vietnamese dong (some 24.7 million U.S. dollars) were traded at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Friday, a decrease of 8.5 percent in volume and 2.7 percent in value against the previous trading session.

More than 239.409 million shares worth over 2.523 trillion Vietnamese dong (around 112.7 million U.S. dollars) were traded on the bourse this week.

Foreign traders returned as net buyers in the last trading days of the week. On Friday alone, they bought more than 1.170 million shares and sold over 1.114 million shares.

The index turned to red in most of trading sessions of the week because investors kept cautious on their investment. In addition, this movement indicated investors' negative sentiment about the market's short-term outlook, said stock analysts from Bao Viet Securities Company.

As a result, shares of most sectors, including banking, energy, construction and real estates were under high selling pressure to drag the bourse down, said insiders.

Notably, banks became the biggest loser on the bourse with many shares declining sharply such as Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB).

Many local stock experts expressed optimism that the bourse will return to its uptrend in the next trading days.