The market finished lower on Wednesday, dragged by lingering selling force and lower liquidity.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index extended the downtrend for the third day in a row. It closed Wednesday at 946 points, down 6.12 points, or 0.64 per cent. The index recouped some of the losses in the morning trade, but persistent selling pressure weighed on sentiment.
The market's breadth was negative as more stocks clinged to the bearish trend. Liquidity also decreased over the previous session, of which matching value on the southern bourse dipped nearly 55 per cent to more than VND6.9 trillion (US$279.2 million), equal to a matching volume of 489 million shares.
The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also lost 6.81 points, or 0.72 per cent, to 938.73 points. In the VN30 basket, 12 stocks increased, while 14 declined with three hitting the floor prices. And four stocks stayed flat.
Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that as the VN-Index struggled while facing the resistance level of around 970 points after last week's strong recovery, the downtrend continued.
"However, we expect that the market will gradually shift to accumulation in the future when the VN-Index returns to pre-pandemic levels," said SHS.
Statistics compiled by a finance website vietstock.vn showed that pillar stocks in realty and banking sectors continued to dominate the downtrend. Specifically, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) led the trend with a fall of 7 per cent, the maximum daily loss on the southern bourse.
Other stocks weighing on investors' sentiment were Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), Novaland (NVL), VPBank (VPB), and PV Gas (GAS), of which, NVL shares registered the biggest daily losses of 7 per cent.
However, losses were capped by gains in some large-cap stocks, with BIDV (BID) posting the largest rise in market capitalisation of 2.61 per cent. It was followed by Vietinbank (CTG) and Masan Group (MSN), up 2.09 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched down yesterday, ending the five-day rising streak.
During the session, over 65 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VND794.06 billion.
The market was also supported by net inflow from foreign investors as they net bought a total of VND116.59 billion on the two main exchanges. Of which, they net bought VND58.32 billion on HoSE and VND58.27 billion on HNX. — VNS