At an MB Bank transaction office. Shares of the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank led the gainers on a bearish market day. — Photo baotintuc.vn

The market ended the week with a sharp decline, dealing a heavy blow to the previous session's recovery efforts. Meanwhile, foreign investors returned to net selling after two consecutive net buying sessions.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) finished the day at 1,264.78 points, down 9.66 points, or 0.76 per cent.

On the southern bourse, the breadth was negative as 248 stocks ticked down, while 89 increased. Liquidity still remained low at VNĐ18.5 trillion (US$725.8 million), a decrease of three per cent from the previous session.

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE by market capitalisation, also dropped 4.06 points, or 0.31 per cent, down to 1,302.32 points. The number of decliners surpassed gainers in the VN30 basket by 21 to nine.

Large-cap stocks in the banking and manufacturing sectors led the market's downturn, with Vietnam Rubber Group - Joint Stock Company (GVR) posting the biggest fall in market capitalisation of 4.3 per cent, contributing to a decrease of 1.4 points in the VN-Index.

Banking stocks also saw poor performances on Friday. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) posted a decline of 1.65 per cent, the Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TCB) fell 1.27 per cent and the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB) tumbled 0.57 per cent.

Losses were capped by gains in some pillar stocks, led by the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB). Shares of the lender rose 2.01 per cent, contributing more than 0.66 points to the VN-Index gain.

It was followed by Vinhomes JSC, which rose 1.07 per cent and the Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) increasing by 1.21 per cent.

According to experts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC, short-term investors should maintain a reasonable proportion.

Medium to long-term investors should hold onto their current portfolios, and any new positions should be carefully evaluated based on second-quarter business results and year-end prospects of leading companies. As for the VN-Index, investors should patiently wait for the index to break out of the current short-to-medium-term accumulation trend before making any new decisions.

The Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) index also finished lower on Friday afternoon, declining 0.81 per cent to 240.52 points.

During the session, more than VNĐ1.3 trillion worth of shares were traded, equivalent to a trading volume of over 67 million shares on the northern bourse.

Foreign investors returned to their net selling spree as they net sold over VNĐ350 billion on HoSE. — VNS