A worker harvesting rubber latex in Đắk Nông Province. Shares of Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) led the decliners during a volatile trading day. — VNA/VNS Photo
The market opened August with a sharp decline, dealing a heavy blow to the previous session's recovery efforts.
The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) finished the day at 1,226.96 points, down 24.55 points, or 1.96 per cent.
On the southern bourse, the breadth was negative as 306 stocks declined, while 41 increased. Liquidity reached VNĐ21.4 trillion (US$852.67 million), an increase of 21.8 per cent from the previous session.
The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE by market capitalisation, also dropped sharply by 27.09 points, or 2.09 per cent, to 1,272 points. The number of decliners surpassed gainers in the VN30 basket by 28 to two.
Many sector stocks suffered strong selling pressure on Thursday, with Vietnam Rubber Group - Joint Stock Company (GVR) posting the biggest fall in market capitalisation of 4.85 per cent, contributing to a decrease of more than 1.5 points in the VN-Index.
It was followed by FPT Corporation (FPT), whose shares fell by 2.95 per cent, Becamex (BCM) hit the lower limit, dropping by 6.99 per cent and Masan Group Corporation (MSN), which decreased by 3.1 per cent.
Banking stocks also performed poorly on Thursday. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) posted a decline of 1.68 per cent, the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB) fell by 4.1 per cent and the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPB) tumbled 2.37 per cent.
Losses were mitigated by gains in some pillar stocks, led by the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB). Shares of the lender rose by 1.68 per cent, contributing more than 2.1 points to the VN-Index gain.
The only other stock in the VN30-Index that increased was Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SSB), which rose by 0.69 per cent.
Trần Trương Mạnh Hiếu, Head of Strategic Analysis at KIS Vietnam Securities Corporation, stated that there were no negative macroeconomic developments. He attributed today's adjustment session to psychological factors.
"The market is in a 'weak' phase after a prolonged correction, so psychological factors and speculative information are still weighing on the market. The economy is showing better recovery and foreign investors are starting to net buy again. Investors should calmly assess the situation and develop appropriate strategies instead of panic selling," Hiếu added.
The Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) index also finished lower on Thursday, declining by 2.6 per cent to 229.23 points.
During the session, more than VNĐ1.9 trillion worth of shares were traded, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 104 million shares on the northern market.
Foreign investors showed signs of bottom-fishing on Thursday's trading session. Specifically, they net bought over VNĐ60 billion on the southern exchange and nearly VNĐ32 billion on the northern exchange. — VNS