Shares plummeted for the second session in a row on Tuesday morning as strong selling pressure hit many large-caps during most of the trading session.

The benchmark VN Index on HCM Stock Exchange slipped down by 1.49 per cent to close at 999.90 points, breaking down the old bottom below 1,000, extending its loss of 2.46 per cent from Monday.

The HNX Index on Hanoi Stock Exchange tumbled 1.79 per cent to end at 117.51 points. The index had lost 1.33 per cent on Monday.

Some 115.3 million shares, worth VND2.7 trillion (US$118.4 million), were traded on the two local exchanges.

The market breadth was negative, with 324 declining stocks against 97 gaining stocks.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the southern city’s 30 largest shares by capitalisation and liquidity, decreased by 2.34 per cent to 973,86 points. There was only one gainer and 27 decliners in the basket.

Heavy selling pressure was seen across the board and increased in the last few minutes of the trading session, hitting many blue chips, including budget carrier Vietjet, bankers Vietcombank and Vietinbank, real estate developers Vingroup and Novaland as well as Masan Group.

On the positive side, Vinhomes JSC (VHM), the real estate arm of Vingroup (VIC), unexpectedly matched 20 shares on Tuesday morning and quickly hit the upper price limit of VNĐ118,200 per share. This made VHM the largest company by market capitalisation, at VNĐ317 trillion, exceeding VIC, whose capitalisation is some VNĐ287 trillion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS