Vietnamese shares declined for a third session on Thursday as the market reversed quickly at the end of the trading session, dragged down by blue chips in the banking and energy sectors.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 2.05 per cent to close at 981.78 points, finally falling below the 1,000-point level maintained during the last seven sessions.

More than 200 million shares were exchanged on the southern bourse, worth VND4.3 trillion (US$184 million).

The southern market index lost 0.43 per cent to close Wednesday at 1,002.30 points.

Large-cap companies performed poorly with the blue-chip VN30 Index declined 1.76 per cent to 907.87 points on Thursday.

Twenty-six of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation ended in negative territory while only three increased. The remaining one was flat.

Among the worst decliners in the VN30 basket included real estate developer Vinhomes (VHM), Vingroup (VIC), Vincom Retail (VRE), budget carrier Vietjet Air (VJC), jewellery producer Phu Nhuan (PNJ), Mobile World Group (MWG), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and IT giant FPT (FPT).

Media conglomerate Yeah1 Group (YEG) rebounded on Thursday after 12 consecutive losing sessions thanks to bottom purchasing power in the morning.

YEG hit the daily limit rise of 7 per cent to trade at VND102,300 per share with trading volume of more than 830,000 shares.

Banking and energy stocks also underperformed.

Booming stocks in the banking sector, such as Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), Viet Nam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPB) and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB), were down between 0.2 and 3.9 per cent.

The energy sector was driven down by PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (GAS), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PetroVietnam Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVD).

GAS dropped 3.1 per cent. PLX lost 3.6 per cent. Notably, PVD hit the daily limit decline of 7 per cent.

On a sector basis, 18 of the 20 sectors saw share prices drop, including real estate, securities, technology, banking, petroleum, food and beverages and seafood processing.

The 16 industry indices were down between 0.72 and 4.77 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BID), the Vietnamese market has a strong correction on Thursday amid the news that FED lowered the prospect of GDP growth, inflation along with the higher unemployment rate of the US economy and President Trump maintained that he will not change the level of taxation on Chinese goods.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 1.65 per cent to end Thursday at 107.81 points.

Nearly 42.8 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND598 billion.

The northern market index lost 0.40 per cent to end Wednesday at 109.62 points.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the market is entering a wide fluctuation with uncertain trends. Stock exposure, therefore, should be limited at 30-40 per cent of the portfolio.

Investors with a high proportion of stocks in the portfolio may consider reducing the exposure in the recovery sessions. On the other hand, investors with high cash proportion may consider buying back, prioritising portfolio’s existing positions in the support zone, BVSC said. — VNS