Vietnamese shares failed to maintain their upward trend on Thursday due to overwhelming selling pressure that persisted from the start of the trading hour to the closing minutes.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 1.18 per cent to close at 969.40 points. It jumped 1.95 per cent on Wednesday.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange lost 1.73 per cent to end at 110.16 points. The northern index had gained 1.38 per cent in the previous session.

More than 149 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND3.6 trillion (US$157 million).

The market breadth was negative as declining stocks outnumbered gaining ones by 276 to 153 while 310 other stocks were unchanged.

Massive sell-offs hit 18 of the 20 sectors on the stock market. Key industries that saw share prices down included banking-financial, energy, rubber and plastic production and retail, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Large-cap stocks were hit by profit-taking pressure. The large-cap VN30 Index fell 1.15 per cent to 955.75 points with 25 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation suffering.

Among the worst-performing stocks in the VN30 basket were steel producer Hoa Sen Group (HSG), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), consumer firm Masan (MSN), Vincom Retail Joint Stock Company (VRE) and FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company (ROS).

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), Viet Nam will not be included in the review list for potential reclassification of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) for the next review period, which will negatively affect investors’ confidence in the market.

“In general, from our view, the results of the MSCI review indicated a slow pace of improvement in the Vietnamese stock market. In comparison with the other two Frontier markets in the region, which are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Viet Nam still needs to improve the most,” BVSC said in its daily report.

As a consequence, Viet Nam’s stock market can hardly be included in the review list for 2018 without breakthrough changes, it said.

Foreign investors became net buyers on the HOSE but remained net sellers on the HNX.

They were net buyers of steel producer Hoa Phat Group (VND41.88 billion), budget carrier Vietjet (VND36.65 billion) and Saigon Securities Incorporation (VND34.26 billion). They net sold VND34.18 billion on the HNX.

According to BIDV Securities Company, market sentiment remained in a state of anxiety. The company suggested investors maintain their current portfolio proportion and limit the margin usage until market liquidity recovers. — VNS