Vietnamese shares ended Thursday on a negative note after foreign investors extended their net selling streak, further dampening investor sentiment.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.65 per cent, to close Thursday at 1,384.77 points. The market's breadth was neutral with 220 stocks increasing while 205 stocks declined.

The southern market index had declined 0.11 per cent, to finish Wednesday at 1,393.80 points.

The market liquidity was also high as domestic investors poured over VND21 trillion (US$923 million) into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 709 million shares.

“On HoSE, foreign investors continued their net selling with a net value of VND790 billion,” reported the news site cafef.vn.

Hoa Phat Group (HPG) was the stock that was under the strongest net selling pressure of foreign investors with a value of VND310 billion. Following were Nam Long Group (NLG) with VND99 billion, Vingroup (VIC) with VND86 billion, SSI Securities Co (SSI) with VND83 billion and Vinhomes (VHM) with VND79 billion.

The VN30-Index dropped 1.05 per cent to 1,489.26 points. Of the VN30 basket, three stocks rose, while 27 slid.

“The market today was strongly influenced by the expiration of the VN30-Index futures contract,” said financial news site vietstock.vn.

“As usual, the market was volatile at the end of the session. The selling force focusing on stocks in the VN-30 group was strong and caused many heavy-weight shares to plunge,” it said.

Some notable losers were Vietjet (VJC) falling 3 per cent, Sabeco (SAB) down 2.1 per cent, VPBank (VPB) declining 2 per cent, PV Power (POW) decreasing 2 per cent, Masan Group (MSN) falling 2 per cent, PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) down 2 per cent and Mobile World Group (MWG) down 1.7 per cent.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index gained 0.04 per cent to close Thursday at 388.45 points.

It had risen 0.33 per cent to close Wednesday at 388.29 points.

During the trading session, over 117.4 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth over VND2.2 trillion. — VNS