A Vietcombank employee talks to a client at its transaction office. The lender's shares slumped nearly 2.8 per cent on Wednesday, leading the market's downtrend. — Photo courtesy of the bank

Shares inched lower on Wednesday as pillar stocks faced a strong sell-off, while foreign investors continued to net buy on the market.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index reversed course after gaining for three straight sessions and broke below the threshold of 1,165 points. Specifically, the index closed the trading day at 1,164.31 points, down 15.34 points, or 1.3 per cent.

The breadth of the market returned to a negative zone as 241 stocks declined while 82 ticker symbols inched higher.

However, liquidity soared more than 70 per cent from the previous session to over VNĐ23.3 trillion (US$954.7 million). This was equal to a trading volume of 1.12 billion shares.

According to Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), the current movements confirmed the first increase phase of the VN-Index in the medium term with the accumulation ranging from 1,150 to 1,250 points.

The newly released domestic macro data for January all show quite positive signals, however, the general activities of businesses and difficulties in the real estate and bond markets will require more time to recover.

"As a result, it is appropriate for the market to move towards finding a re-equilibrium point for accumulation," SHS said.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also finished lower at 1,166.33 points, down 15.38 points, or 1.3 per cent. In the VN30 basket, up to 26 stocks slid while three increased and one ended flat.

Banking stocks led the market's downturn today, with Vietcombank posting the biggest loss of 2.75 per cent. Other lenders, including BIDV (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB) and MBBank (MBB), all experienced big losses of 1.55-5.7 per cent.

Selling force also weighed on other industries like real estate, manufacturing, transportation and retail.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index followed the general trend to fall 1.48 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 229.18 points.

More than 98.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ1.9 trillion.

Foreign investors were still net buyers on the market as they net bought VNĐ122.43 billion on HoSE. However, they net bought a small value of VNĐ1.26 billion on HNX. — VNS