The market settled down on Tuesday morning as strong selling pressure weighed on banking and financial sectors. However, gains in some big large-cap stocks capped losses.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) dropped 11.15 points, or 0.82 per cent, to 1,347.63 points. The market's breadth remained negative with 242 stocks declining while 152 stocks rose.

However, the market liquidity was low as domestic investors was reluctant to invest in risky assets. During the morning session, only 127.32 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VND4 trillion ($170.5 million).

The main reason for the fall of the index was profit-taking activities on banking and securities stocks.

The VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, inched down 0.99 per cent to 1,469.42 points. Twenty-two of 30 biggest stocks in the VN30 basket fell while eight stocks climbed in the morning trade.

Bank stocks were still leading the market's trend with many big names posting losses of more than 1 per cent. These stocks included Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), JSC Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB) and MBBank (MBB).

Other big stocks witnessing poor performance included Hoa Phat Group (HPG), down 1.9 per cent, No Va Land Investment Group Corporation (Novaland, NVL), down 2.24 per cent, Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), down 2.87 per cent, and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), down 1.98 per cent.

The index pared some losses on gains in Vinhomes JSC (VHM), up 2.08 per cent, Vingroup JSC (VIC), up 0.65 per cent, Vinamilk (VNM), up 1.01 per cent, Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), up 2.84 per cent, and Vietjet Aviation JSC (VJC), up 4.65 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also slid 1.19 per cent to 314.84 points. VNS