A production line of dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM). VNM lost 1 per cent yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI - Large-cap stocks faced profit-taking, leading to a decline in share prices on Friday across both national exchanges, following two consecutive sessions of market advancement.

The benchmark VN-Index lost 0.65 per cent to end at 1,154.70 points.

It had gained a total of 0.31 per cent over the previous two days.

More than 1 billion shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ22.75 trillion (US$928.7 million).

The market breadth was negative with 380 declining stocks, 132 gaining ones and 60 others ending flat.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 biggest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity, rose 0.01 per cent to 1,163.66 points.

In the VN30 basket, 21 stocks declined while eight made gains, and one stayed flat.

The banking sector significantly influenced the market and the VN-30 basket, driven by the increasing momentum of stocks such as Military Bank (MBB), Vietinbank (CTG), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB), Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), and HDBank (HDB). By the close of the trading session, banks were the only group to experience price increases.

On the opposite side, the decline in the stock market was attributed to investors engaging in profit-taking, which had a significant impact on large-cap stocks.

As investors sought to capitalise on their gains, they sold off their holdings in these prominent stocks, leading to a downward trend in the market. The profit-taking activity reflected a cautious sentiment among investors who were keen to secure their profits after a period of market advancement. This behaviour contributed to the overall decline in stock prices, as the selling pressure on large-cap stocks intensified throughout the trading session, said news site vietstock.vn.

Losers included PVPower (POW), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), Vinhomes (VHM), Vincom Retail (VRE), Mobile World Group (MWG) and Vinamilk (VNM). They lost between 1 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index lost 1.03 per cent to end at 230.31 points.

More than 98 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ1.9 trillion.