The market benchmark VN-Index corrected on Thursday after breaking over the psychological barrier of 1,200 points in the previous session, ending its winning streak.
On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index closed the trading day at 1,197.33 points, a decline of 3.51 points, or 0.29 per cent.
The index surpassed the 1,200-point level for the first time in ten months on Wednesday, bouyed by an improvement in investor confidence.
The breadth of the market was negative as the number of declining stocks was more than gainers. Of which, 141 stocks on the southern bourse added points, while 185 inched lower.
Liquidity, however, improved with the trading value on HoSE soaring back to nearly VNĐ22.7 trillion (US$969 million). The trading volume also rose by 27.4 per cent to more than 1.1 billion shares switching hands.
The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also traded lower at 1,199.68 points, down 1.75 points, or 0.15 per cent. Ten stocks in the VN30 basket advanced, while 17 slid and three stayed flat.
The market's movements were in line with analysts' expectations. An analyst team at Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that in the short term, the market will trade in mixed directions, meaning that there will be some correction sessions to strengthen the uptrend.
Today's reversal was mainly driven by stronger profit-taking demand after the index rallied continuously and breached the threshold of 1,200 points.
Leading the downtrend was the property developer Vinhomes (VHM). The company's shares tumbled by 2.54 per cent in market capitaliastion. It was followed by big banks Vietcombank (VCB), BIDV (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), and Techcombank (TCB). The stocks fell in a range of 0.75-1.51 points.
However, the index pared losses thanks to gains in some large-cap stocks. Particularly, Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) was the biggest gainer on the southern bourse, up over 3.8 per cent.
Also helping cushion the bearish trend, Vinamilk (VNM) climbed 0.93 per cent, Power Generation Joint Stock Corporation 3 (PGV) jumped 4.44 per cent, Novaland (NVL) soared 3.78 per cent, FPT Group (FPT) was up 1.21 per cent and Đất Xanh Group (DXG) even logged the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent.
On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index fell for the second day in a row. It dropped 0.56 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 235.64 points.
Investors poured nearly VNĐ2 trillion into the bourse, equal to a trading volume of 120.3 million shares.
Foreign investors also helped ease the downtrend on the market as they continued to net buy more than VNĐ313.5 billion on HoSE. Nevertheless, they still net sold VNĐ39.8 billion on HNX. — VNS