Shares retreated on Thursday on the nation’s stock exchanges, reversing from Wednesday’s unexpected rebound.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index slid 0.31 per cent of its value to close at 985.92, reversing from its gain of 0.31 per cent on Wednesday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost by 0.88 per cent to end the session at 117.07 points. The index had risen by 1.19 per cent on Wednesday.

Both benchmark indices opened in negative territory as sell orders increased amid weak demand.

Market trading liquidity plunged, worsening investor confidence, with more than 155.7 million shares being traded on the two bourses, worth VND4.5 trillion (US$197 million).

Thursday’s trading figures were down 38 per cent in volume and 27 per cent in value compared to Wednesday.

The market breadth was negative, with 257 declining stocks against 202 gaining stocks.

Large-cap stocks traded poorly as 24 of the 30 largest stocks, in terms of market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 Index, declined while only five of them ended higher.

The VN-Index dropped below 975 in continuous order matching before rising back to 985, supported by the recovery of a number of blue chips in the latter half of the session.

Those shares include Vincom Retail (VRE), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) and steel maker Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (HPG).

Notably, the two largest stocks by market capitalisation, Vingroup (VIC) and its real estate arm Vinhomes (VHM) were also two supporters of the index, rising 1.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively.

However, heavy selling pressure was seen across the board and increased in the last few minutes of the trading session, hitting many blue chips in the banking sector, including the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and VPBank (VPB).

Some other blue-chips also suffered, including steel maker Hoa Sen Group (HSG) (3.7 per cent), confectionary maker Kido Group (KDC) (3.1 per cent) and FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company (ROS) hitting the daily limit decline of 7 per cent.

Foreign investors on Thursday net sold VND147 billion on the HOSE, focusing on Vinhomes (VHM) (VND154 billion), banker HDBank (HDB) (VND43 billion) and Vingroup (VIC) (VND40 billion). They also net sold VND4.7 billion on the HNX.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), low liquidity and continuous net selling value of foreign traders were bad news for the overall market.

“Due to weak bottom-fishing cash flows amid heavy selling pressure on large-cap stocks, the market is likely to stay on a downtrend in the short term,” BVSC said in its daily report.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) edged down 0.36 per cent to finish 53.88 points, reversing from its gain of 0.64 per cent in the previous session. — VNS