Selling pressure increased suddenly especially near the close of the trading session on Friday, hitting many large-cap stocks and putting pressure on the overall market.

The market underwent a week of losses with a downtrend during five consecutive sessions.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined 1.03 per cent to 900.82 points by the end of the afternoon’s trade.

The benchmark index declined 1.36 per cent to 910.17 points on Thursday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 1.27 per cent to end at 101.79 points.

The index lost 0.61 per cent to end at 103.10 points on Thursday.

Market liquidity increased compared to Friday but remained at an average level with a total of 195.4 million shares worth nearly VND3.7 trillion (US$158 million) traded on the two markets.

Declining stocks dominated the market with 244 stocks seeing prices fall, while 181 others ended on a positive note.

Large-cap stocks underperformed as the VN30 Index, tracking the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, was down 0.88 per cent to close Friday at 881.06 points.

Oil-gas stocks tumbled 8.33 per cent, dragged down by PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietNam Coating JSC (PVB), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).

Bank stocks fell across the board, resulting in a drop of 7.88 per cent of the overall banking index. The biggest losers of the banking sector included the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Techcombank (TCB) and Vietinbank (CTG).

Securities stocks slipped 9.66 per cent and real estate stocks decreased 2.04 per cent, attributed to the movement in VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS), Vinhomes (VHM), Dat Xanh Group JSC (DXG) and Ha Do Group Joint Stock Company (HDG).

Conversely, beverage stocks rallied 0.52 per cent on the rise of 0.55 per cent of brewery Sabeco (SAB).

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), as of Wednesday, business results for the first nine months of 449 companies listed on the HSX, HNX, and UPCOM have been released, of which 388 companies, or 86 per cent, reported profit.

These 449 firms recorded VND70.3 trillion of profit after tax, up 31.1 per cent from VND56.6 trillion in the same period of 2017.

Notably, 69 out of 449 companies already fulfilled their yearly targets, typically GAS (138.1 per cent), seafood processor Vinh Hoan Corporation (VHC) (167.1 per cent), PetroVietnam Fertiliser & Chemicals Corporation (DPM) (148.4 per cent) and Phuoc Hoa Rubber Joint Stock Company (PHR) (121.9 per cent).

Oil-gas, real estate, and bank stocks respectively recorded profit growth of 70.1 per cent, 50.5 per cent, and 48 per cent.

However, the impact of positive business results on investors’ sentiment was insignificant as these results were released during the bearish sessions and have already been reflected in recent stock prices.

Regarding bank stocks, solid earnings results would not boost share prices, but lower-than-expected results would cause a slide, experts noted.

“After declining for five sessions in a row, the index has triggered worries in the market. In the next sessions, the VN-Index may break through the old bottom at 885 points and fall to the next support level at 860-870 points,” BVSC said in its daily report.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) lost 0.32 per cent to finish at 51.13 points. The unlisted market index edged down 0.43 per cent to finish at 51.29 points in the previous session. — VNS