Shares nosedived on Tuesday due to the fall of banking stocks caused by massive selling at the end of the trading session.
On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark dropped 1.83 per cent, to 1,406.45 points.
The market's breadth was negative with only 101 gainers, and 371 losers.
During the session, over 702.4 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VND22.7 trillion (US$988.5 million).
The benchmark's downtrend was due to losses of many large-cap stocks, especially in oil and gas and banking sectors.
The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, fell 1.88 per cent, to 1,440.61 points.
Of the VN30 basket, 25 stocks slid, while only three inched higher and two ended flat.
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), Tien Phong Bank (TPB) and Lien Viet Post Bank (LPB).
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).
Twenty-three out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including IT, oil and gas, retail, seafood production, securities, insurance, wholesale and healthcare, rubber production, agriculture, and food and beverage.
On the other side, the only two gainers were logistics and construction materials.
“From a technical perspective, VN-Index is approaching MA200, with a support level of 1,420 points. This is a very good recovery level for the market. According to experts, it is difficult for VN-Index to "penetrate" this mark because there had been six consecutive losing sessions. In addition, looking back at the market's declines, the area of 1,420 all performed well as a support,” said Huynh Huu Phuoc, head of the Individual Customer Department of Rong Viet Securities (VDSC).
“For investors with a long-term view, experts still think that short-term corrections are a good opportunity to buy stocks. However, the most important advice for investors at the moment is still to prioritise risk management and limit the use of margin. In case of high margin, investors should actively lower to a safe level to avoid a "margin call" leading to damage to the portfolio,” said Phuoc.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), meanwhile, the HNX-Index lost 2.59 per cent to end at 392.69 points.
During the trading session, investors poured nearly VND2.1 trillion into the bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 87.2 million shares. — VNS