Shares lost ground on Tuesday due to the sharp fall of large-cap and mid-caps in the real estate group, pressuring the overall market.
The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) lost 0.49 per cent to close at 1,503.47 points. The index had risen 0.4 per cent to close Monday at 1,510.84 points.
The market's breadth turned negative with 319 stocks declining, while 147 rose.
Liquidity rose to a new record high with more than 908 million shares traded on the southern bourse, worth VND28.2 trillion (US$1.2 billion).
The 30 biggest stocks tracking VN30-Index lost 0.07 per cent to 1,532.36 points. Eleven in the VN30 basket increased, while 19 declined.
Real estate and construction stocks witnessed a dramatic drop in prices as a series of large-cap stocks plunged such as Novaland (NVL), Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC), Nam Long Group (NLG), Hoa Binh Construction Group Joint Stock Company (HBC) and Viglacera Corporation – JSC (VGC).
A number of other smaller caps also dropped such as LDG Investment JSC (LDG), Tan Tao Investment and Industry Corporation (ITA), Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corporation (HQC), Thu Duc Housing Development Corporation (TDH), Van Phat Hung Corporation (VPH), Licogi 16 Joint Stock Company (LCG) and FECON Corporation (FCN).
Banking stocks gained strongly and supported the indices, with gainers including Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and Military Bank (MBB). Among them, Military Bank (MBB) was the strongest gainer in the group with an increase of 5.4 per cent.
Energy stocks also attracted cash flow with many gainers such as Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PVPower (POW), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).
Foreign investors net sold VND55 billion on the HoSE, focusing on Vietcombank (VCB), Kinh Bac Corporation (KBC) and FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company (FRT).
Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 1.49 per cent, to 434.43 points. The index had increased 1.24 per cent to end Monday at 440.99 points.
During the trading session, investors poured VND3.6 trillion into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 119 million shares. — VNS