The stock market opened the new week on a negative note, extending last week's big losses as selling force continued to weigh on investors' sentiment.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined 10.89 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 1,432.43 points. It lost 38.73 points in the last trading session, with some considering the fall as the "black Friday" of the Vietnamese stock market.

The market's breadth was negative as 87 stocks rose, while 359 stocks slid. The liquidity also fell compared to last Friday's trade with total trading value on HoSE posting a loss of 1 per cent to VND14,44 trillion (US$626.5 million).

However, foreign investors was net buyers on HoSE this morning, with a net bought value of VND273.87 billion.

The benchmark's downtrend was mainly driven by losses in many large-cap stocks. The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index plunged 7.24 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 1,496.76 points.

Of the VN30 basket, 12 stocks increased, while 17 stocks edged down and one stock stay unchanged.

According to data compiled by vietstock.vn, PetroVietnam Gas (PV Gas, GAS) led the market's downtrend this morning, with a loss of 2.69 per cent. It was followed by Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Vietcombank (VCB), down 1.99 per cent and 1.02 per cent, respectively.

It also weighed by selling force in other big stocks like Gelex Group JSC (GEX), VPBank (VPB) and MBBank (MBB).

The positive point of the market this morning was the gains of some real estate and manufacturing stocks, including Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vinamilk (VNM).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched 0.76 per cent down to 445.84 points. VNS