Market driven down by banking stocks

Vung Tau PV Gas Dock Warehouse. PVGAS shares increased 3.14 per cent on Friday, cushioning the market's loss. — Photo pvgas.com.vn

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index fell by 13.56 points, or 0.92 per cent, to close the session at 1,458.56 points.

Market breadth was skewed in favour of bears with 674 falling stocks against 348 climbing. Meanwhile, market liquidity was higher than the previous session.

More than 361.9 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth around VND11.8 trillion (US$515.3 million).

The Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) also saw lots of red on the screens. Its benchmark HNX-Index lost 6.97 points (1.65 per cent) to conclude the session at 416.71 points.

Large-cap and banking stocks were the driving force behind the overall downturn of the market.

Notably, Bank for Investment and Development (BID) led the market slump with a fall of 2.96 per cent. Others included Techcombank (TCB), VietinBank (CTG), Military Bank (MBB), VPBank (VPB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

The manufacturing sector experienced mixed fortunes with two-fifths of stocks holding steady. While big names like Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Masan Group (MSN) and GELEX Group (GEX) lost value, Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Vietnam Dairy Products (VNM) and Saigon Beer (SAB) inched higher thanks to bullish sentiment.

Moving in line with the market trend, the VN30-Index which tracked the market's 30 largest companies by capitalisation plummeted by 24.27 points (1.6 per cent) to end at 1,493.74 points. Notably, 22 stocks stumbled, seven climbed and one stayed flat.

It was also worth noting that realty stocks were weighed down by selling pressure. About 191 stocks in the sector fell whereas the number of gainers was just 85. Notably, Vinhomes (VHM) lost 1.66 per cent and Vingroup (VIC) 1.22 per cent.

According to the Saigon-Hanoi Securities Corp., the world’s macro and geopolitical situations have made investors cautious and unwilling to pour more money into the market.

The securities firm hoped that uplifts to investors' sentiment would come soon to help the VN-Index recover to its resistance levels.

Foreign investors dumped nearly VND53.14 billion of shares. They net sold VND157.97 billion on HNX while net bought VND104.83 billion on the southern bourse.