An investor looks at stock prices on a laptop at a brokerage in Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. 

The VN-Index slumped 1.16 percent to 852.74 points Thursday, with all but one of Vietnam’s 30 blue chips in the red. 

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, saw 236 tickers losing and 124 gaining.

Analysts attributed losses this session to profit-taking pressure on investors, who are selling stocks to cash in on short-term gains after the VN-Index climbed 4.31 percent, or 35.7 points, over the last four gaining sessions.

Total transaction volume fell slightly over the previous session, reaching VND5.2 trillion ($221.79 million), but remained far above last month’s average liquidity of VND4.2 trillion ($179.14 million).

The VN30-Index for HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks plunged 1.52 percent, with every single ticker but one closing in the red. However, none of the losing stocks hit their floor prices, as had happened in several sessions with the Covid-19 crisis at its peak in March.

HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group was the only stock that gained this session, rising 2.8 percent.

While private banking stocks were the biggest gainers on Thursday, they were the biggest losers this session. HDB of HDBank and TCB of Techcombank topped losses with 4.6 percent and 4.3 percent respectively, followed by STB of Sacombank and EIB of Eximbank, both down 2.9 percent.

Next were MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, down 2.8 percent, MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, 2.3 percent, VPB of VPBank, 2.2 percent, and MBB of state-owned mid-sized lender Military Bank, 2 percent.

Stocks related to Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup also ended in the red. VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail and VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes both shed 1.9 percent, while VIC of their parent corporation Vingroup fell 1.6 percent.

Unlike private banks, Vietnam’s three biggest state owned lenders by assets, BID of BIDV, CTG of VietinBank and VCB of Vietcombank were better performers with lower drops of 1 percent, 0.7 percent, and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, rose 0.5 percent this session, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on Unlisted Public Companies Market fell 0.13 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers on all three bourses to the tune of VND25 billion ($1.07 million). The buying pressure was mostly on VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, which fell 0.5 percent, and the E1VFVN30, an exchange-traded-fund which imitates the composition, and in turn the performance of the VN30.