Indices retreated on Thursday morning as strong selling pressure weighed on sentiment again.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) breached the key level of 1,300 points in the morning trade and fell by 25.24 points, or 1.94 per cent, to 1,276.29 points.

The market breadth was negative with more than 380 stocks declining, while liquidity remained low as more than 212.7 million shares were traded on HoSE, worth over VND5.85 trillion (US$25.4 million).

The index's reversal was mainly due to rising sell-off activities since the market opened. The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on the southern bourse, plummeted more than 30 points, or 2.23 per cent, to 1,319.67 points.

In the VN30 basket, only one stock increased, while 28 slid and one was unchanged.

Many large-cap stocks posted great losses, with Vinhomes JSC (VHM) down nearly 2 per cent, leading the morning downtrend.

Bank and manufacturing stocks also faced strong selling force, of which BIDV (BID) down 3.05 per cent, Masan Group (MSN) down 3.5 per cent, Vietcombank (VCB) down 1.38 per cent and VPBank (VPB) down 3.3 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index plunged 4.98 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 328.06 points. VNS