Shares lost ground on Wednesday 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 0.56 per cent to close at 1,444.30 points. The index had risen 0.94 per cent to close Tuesday at 1,452.46 points.
The market's breadth turned negative with 328 stocks declining, while 144 rose.
Liquidity rose to a new record high with more than 1.5 billion shares traded on the southern bourse, worth VND43.2 trillion (US$1.9 billion).
The 30 biggest stocks tracking VN30-Index gained 0.61 per cent to 1,530.65 points. Thirteen in the VN30 basket increased, while 15 declined and two ended unchanged.
In the VN-30 basket, the worst performers were Novaland (NVL), Vinhomes (VHM), Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX) and Bao Viet Holdings (BVH).
Real estate and construction stocks witnessed a dramatic drop in prices as a series of large-cap stocks plunged such as Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC), Ha Do Group JSC (HDG), 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).
“After gaining slightly more than 11 points at the beginning of the morning session, strong profit-taking pressure caused the VN-Index to suddenly drop more than 20 points,” said BIDV Securities Co.
“After that, despite the support of the banking industry, VN-Index ended the session down more than 8 points compared to that of Tuesday.
“Market breadth tilted to the negative side as the number of losers was twice as many as the number of gainers. If in the coming sessions the market continues to decline with great liquidity, VN-Index is likely to return to test the old peak of 1,420.
“Regarding the transactions of foreign investors, today they net bought on the HoSE and net sold on HNX,” it said.
Foreign investors net bought VND282.48 billion on HOSE, including Hoa Phat Group (HPG) with VND266.21 billion, Geleximco (GEX) with VND85.35 billion, Vinhomes (VHM) with VND64.87 billion. Foreign investors were net sellers on HNX with a value of VND13.35 billion.
Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 1.98 per cent, to 415.71 points. The index had increased 2.06 per cent, to end Tuesday at 424.11 points.
During the trading session, investors poured VND5.2 trillion into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 216.1 million shares. — VNS