Vietnamese shares finished Thursday on a negative note as large-cap firms were unable to hold up against mounting selling pressure.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.66 per cent to close at 976.05 points.

The VN-Index gained total 1.04 per cent in the previous two days.

Selling pressure increased among large-cap stocks and pulled the market down.

The large-cap VN30-Index lost 1.02 per cent to end at 870.81 points.

Twenty-four of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined.

The worst-performing large-cap stocks included Eximbank (EIB), food and beverage firm Masan (MSN), property firm Novaland (NVL), DHG Pharmaceuticals (DHG) and steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG).

According to vietstock.vn, the sectors having driven the stock market up recently such as property, banking, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare showed signs of losing momentum.

Those groups of stocks had made strong increases in recent weeks as investors expected those companies to report better quarterly earnings in this season, especially bank stocks.

Among bank stocks that declined, Eximbank (EIB) tumbled 5.5 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG) lost 1.1 per cent, and Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB) and HDBank (HDB) shed between 0.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sacombank (STB) ended flat, Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Military Bank (MBB) gained modestly between 0.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent.

The three banks’ growth was not enough to offset the losses other bank stocks made. Though bank stocks were running out of momentum, there were no other sectors attractive enough for investors to turn to, MB Securities Co (MBS) said in its daily report.

But the market decline on Thursday should not be a concern because regional markets recorded worse performances, MBS said, adding lower trading liquidity signalled investors were not willing to completely withdraw from the market at the moment.

Nearly 140 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND3.6 trillion (US$155 million). Of the figure, 127 million shares were exchanged via order-matching transactions, worth VND2.8 trillion.

The figures were lower than those recorded on Wednesday.

According to Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC), the decline on Thursday was needed as it calmed investors down from being overexcited.

Capital kept flowing into the market and headed to stocks that fell back to lower price levels, proving investors were quite unnerved, TCSC said.

Therefore, the VN-Index is expected to struggle towards 990-1,000 points with differentiation among groups of stocks in the earnings season, TCSC added.

Some sectors that are forecast to deliver good earnings reports for the second quarter and six months included banking, retail, technology and oil and gas, TCSC said.

Investors may also look for instant profits in the sectors with supportive news like industrial real estate and textile and garment, which may benefit from the ratification of the EVFTA, the company added.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index struggled to inch up 0.15 per cent to end at 106.74 points.

The northern market index has rallied more than 1 per cent in total after three trading days.

More than 33 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND555 billion. — VNS