Vietnamese shares dropped on Thursday after three straight gaining sessions as recent good performance of the market triggered stronger profit-taking sentiment.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index fell 0.74 per cent, to close at 1,126.22 points.

The southern market index had risen 1.02 per cent in the last three sessions.

The market's breadth was negative with 339 stocks declining while only 94 stocks rose.

The market liquidity was high as over VND18.6 trillion (US$784 million) was poured into the southern bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 921 million shares.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, dropped 0.91 per cent to 1,119.44 points.

There were only eight advancers in the VN-30 basket, including SSI Securities Co (SSI), Petro Vietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM), Viet Nam Rubber Group (GVR) and Tien Phong Bank (TPB).

In the opposite direction, banking stocks fell and put great pressure on the overall market, with losers including Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MBB), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB) and Lien Viet Post Bank (LPB).

Energy stocks also lost ground with losers such as PVPower (POW), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

“The liquidity increased compared to the previous session. However, VN-Index could not keep the high price level during the session and retreated at the end of the session, showing that the old peak area still contains quite strong supply. The market may need more time to probe supply and demand,” said Viet Dragon Securites Co.

“It is expected that the market will continue to struggle and dispute in 1-2 sessions due to the pressure from the old peak of 1,140 points of VN-Index. Therefore, investors still need to observe supply and demand movements to assess the state of the market.”

“For the time being, it is still possible to hold stocks that are showing good technical signals from the accumulation base. However, for stocks that are still under selling pressure from the resistance zone and have not performed well recently, they should still consider taking profit or reducing the weight to rebalance the portfolio.”

Meanwhile, on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 1.21 per cent to close at 225.08 points. VNS