Pillar stocks were strongly hit, including Vinamilk. Vinamilk dropped 1.5 per cent on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

The VN-Index declined for three straight days on Thursday as many large caps unexpectedly lost value by the end of the session.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.09 per cent to close Thursday at 976.79 points, totalling a three-day fall of 0.8 per cent.

Nearly 160 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth more than VND4 trillion (US$173 million).

The large-cap VN30-Index dropped 0.11 per cent to end at 886.10 points with 15 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation declining.

According to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS), the market traded in a state of low liquidity with the main indices moving marginally. The selling force increased during the last minutes of trading session, sending the VN-Index down slightly for the third day in a row.

“The market may keep struggling and moving sideways in the next sessions,” SHS said.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), there have been optimistic signals about global politics and economic developments as the Sino-US negotiations will restart in October and geopolitical tensions in Hong Kong somewhat cooled down.

However, the strong drop in liquidity showed that investors still maintained their cautious sentiment and cash flow is still outside the market, BSC said.

Real estate, securities, information and technology, retail, banking, food and beverage, seafood processing, and construction were the sectors that weighed down the stock market.

Pillar stocks were strongly hit, including Vinamilk (VNM) (-1,5 per cent), Vingroup (VIC) (-0,3 per cent), Military Bank (MBB) (-1,7 per cent), Mobile World Group (MWG) (-1,4 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (-0,7 per cent), FPT Corporation (FPT) (-1,1 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (-0,3 per cent) and Novaland (NVL) (-0,7 per cent).

In the opposite direction, some pillars supported the market, such as Sabeco (SAB) (+1,5 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (+2,3 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (+0,4 per cent), VPBank (VPB) (+2,3 per cent), Hoa Phat Group (HPG) (+0,5 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (+0,1 per cent) and Vincom Retail (VRE) (+0,3 per cent).

The HN-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange climbed 0.02 per cent to 100.96 points on Thursday.

Nearly 17 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND250 billion.

Foreign investors net sold VND116.19 billion on HOSE, including Vinamlik (VNM) (VND34 billion), HDBank (HDB) (VND12.7 billion) and Vietcombank (VCB) (VND10.2 billion). Foreigners were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VND7.25 billion.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the VN-Index is forecast to adjust around the support zone 970-975 points next session. The market would possibly recover in this support zone.

“However, foreign investors still continued the net selling trend today. The market is expected to move sideways with alternate ups and downs together with a wide divergence among stock groups,” BVSC said. — VNS