by Vo Mai Nguyen Phuong HANOI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese stock market slipped on Friday as investors decided to take profits at the weekend session. The benchmark VN-Index on the country's southern bourse named the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell 0.79 points against the previous trading day, or 0.15 percent to close at 510. 37 points on Friday. It lost 2.62 points, or 0.5 percent from last Friday's close. Despite the fall on Friday session, VN-Index moved in an upward trend during the first trading week of this month with three ups and two downs. It recorded the lowest score of 507.44 on Monday and rose to the highest level of 511.16 points on Thursday. Last week, the benchmark traded in a broader band from 468 to 512 points. A total of 52.56 million shares worth 1.65 trillion Vietnamese dong (87.28 million U.S. dollars) were changed hands at the HoSE on Friday, posting a sharp decline of 10.78 percent in volume and 16.25 percent in value against last Friday. This week, liquidity of the HoSE underwent a slight change with the average trading volume decreasing by 1.4 percent over that of last week to 45.41 million shares a session. The trading value on average went down 1.36 percent from last week's figure to 1.45 trillion Vietnamese dong (76.31 million U.S. dollars). On the northern Vietnam's Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), HNX- Index fell 1.68 points, or 1.03 percent against Thursday to 161.68 points on Friday. It dropped by 5.03 points, or 3.02 percent against last Friday. This week, HNX-Index traded in a narrower band from 161 to 163 points while it ran from 155.9 to 166.71 points last week. Volume stood at 29.67 million shares valued at 934.84 billion Vietnamese dong (49.2 million U.S. dollars) on Friday, a plunge of 33.91 percent in volume and 40.08 percent in value against last Friday. On the HNX this week, the average trading volume was 30.29 million shares a session, down 14.79 percent from last week. The daily value decreased by 9.74 percent against that of last week to 992.6 billion Vietnamese dong (52.24 million U.S. dollars). Local market analysts said that a slight drop of Vietnam's stock market on Friday resulted from profit-taking decisions of the investors. On the HoSE, foreign investors were the net-sellers with 53.94 billion Vietnamese dong (2.84 million U.S. dollars) after 11 sessions of strong net buying. The performance of Vietnamese stock market this week showed that investors do not want to take risk by involving actively in the market as there has not been a clear and stable prospect for the world stock markets, according to the analysts. Local insiders forecast that the money-flow factor would have a strong impact on the direction of the market in the coming week. The VN-Index is expected to be in the 500-520 range next week. 