A customer at a branch of Vietinbank on Ha Noi's Cua Nam Street. Shares of Vietinbank (CTG) lost 1.5 per cent on Tuesday. VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.31 per cent to close at 1,520.03 points.

The southern index had risen by 0.54 per cent, to close Monday at 1,524.70 points.

The market breadth was negative with 273 stocks falling and 179 rising.

Liquidity was at a low level with more than VND21.8 trillion (US$953 million) poured into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of over 703.5 million shares.

The index's decrease was due to declines in pillar stocks, especially in the securities and banking sector. Accordingly, the VN30-Index lost 0.57 per cent, to 1,539.20 points.

Eleven of the 30 biggest stocks in capitalisation on HoSE posted gains, while 19 slid and two ended flat.

Data compiled by vietstock.vn showed that towards the end of the session, the VN-Index's loss was significantly broadened as banking stocks declined, such as Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vibank (VIB) losing 2.1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), VPBank (VPB), Saigonbank (SGB), Vietinbank (CTG) all saw a decrease of 1 per cent to 1.8 per cent.

Securities stocks also performed poorly with losers including Agribank Securities Corporation (AGR), FPT Securities Joint Stock Company (FTS), VNDirect Securities Co (VND), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), SSI Securities Inc (SSI), APG Securities Joint Stock Company (APG), Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), Viet Capital Incorporation (VCI) and Petrovietnam Securities Incorporated (PSI).

The State Securities Commission (SSC) announced Tuesday morning it had decided to cancel nine separate bond issuances worth over VND10 trillion by Tan Hoang Minh citing submission of false information.

The news negatively affected the real estate stock group. Construction also traded negatively with many codes closing lower such as Coteccons Construction Corporation (CTD), Development Investment Construction JSC (DIG), Ha Do Group (HDG), Kinh Bac Corporation (KBC), Nam Bay Bay Investment Corp (NBB) and Viglacera Corporation – JSC (VGC).

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) decreased by 0.56 per cent, to 456.10 points.

Nearly 83.7 million stocks were traded on HNX, worth nearly VND2.6 trillion.