A customer talks to a BIDV's teller at its office in Hà Nội. Shares of the lender dropped on Thursday, leading the market's downturn. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

The domestic stock market ended mixed on Thursday as selling pressure weighed on pillar stocks in banking and energy industries, while foreign investors continued to be net sellers.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined by 2.15 points, or 0.17 per cent to 1,259.09 points, breaking a two-day rally and finishing at its lowest close since May 15.

After a slight correction of four points in the morning trade, the index showed signs of recovery during the afternoon session. However, these efforts were insufficient to push the index into positive territory.

On the southern bourse, the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers by 167 to 137. The market’s liquidity extended the downtrend, with the trading value on HoSE dropping to nearly VNĐ15.2 trillion (US$598.4 million) from VNĐ20.8 trillion on Wednesday.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, also finished lower by 2.27 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 1,289.03 points. Fifteen ticker symbols in the VN30 basket ticked down while ten inched up and five stayed flat.

Stocks in the banking and energy sectors led the downturn, with BIDV (BID) experiencing the biggest loss of 0.9 per cent in market capitalisation.

It was followed by Techcombank (TCB), Petrolimex (PLX) and PetroVietnam Power Corporation (POW). All stocks dropped at least 2.3 per cent.

Others posting a poor performance were Vincom Retail (VRE), down over 1.9 per cent, Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SSB) falling by 1.65 per cent and Becamex (BCM) posting a decline of 1.2 per cent.

The index pared losses thanks to the positive performances of some stocks in the tech, retail and financing industries, such as FPT Corporation (FPT) up 0.76 per cent, Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) up 1.3 per cent, and Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) which jumped 2.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) reversed Wednesday’s course to close higher at 240.07 points, up 0.39 points, or 0.16 per cent.

During the session, investors poured VNĐ1.2 trillion into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 58.1 million shares.

Foreign investors ran away from the market today as they net sold a significant amount of over VNĐ1.1 trillion on HoSE. They also net sold VNĐ16 trillion on HNX. — VNS