A Novaland (NVL) project in HCM City. NVL lost 5.6 per cent on Tuesday. — Photo novaland.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares reversed course to end lower on Tuesday, pressured by the selling force hitting a series of large-cap stock groups at the final minutes of the trading session.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.44 per cent to close at 1,217.56 points. The index had gained 1.26 per cent on Monday.

Market breadth was negative with 156 gainers and 310 decliners.

Some 1.3 billion shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ26.4 trillion (US$1.1 billion).

Although the profit-taking supply increased when the market approached 1,220 points, in general, the pressure was not too great, said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

“Currently, the area of 1,220-1,230 points may still cause a strong dispute but with the gaining momentum being maintained quite well, it is still possible to expect the market's ability to expand the uptrend in the near future until there is a specific distribution signal.

“Therefore, investors can continue to hold stocks with good signals and wait for a reasonable profit-taking price range. However, it is still necessary to consider taking profits in stocks that have risen to the resistance zone or are showing distribution signals to rebalance the portfolio as the market's divergence is quite strong,” it said.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, dropped 0.7 per cent to reach 1,222.18 points. In the basket, six stocks climbed, two stayed flat and 22 slid.

Losers in the VN-30 basket included Novaland (NVL), Vinamilk (VNM), Vietjet (VJC) and Sabeco (SAB).

Banking stocks differentiated during the trading session. Those slumping included Techcombank (TCB), Vietcombank (VCB), VPBank (VPB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).

Bank stocks that went against the market downtrend included National Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NVB), Vietinbank (CTG), HDBank (HDB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB), and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
Vingroup (VIC) hit the daily limit  gain of 7 per cent for the second session but still could not rescue the indices from falling.

Energy stocks also suffered selling pressure with losers such as Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PV OIL (OIL).

On a sector basis, 23 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, seafood production, and plastic and chemical production.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.08 per cent to close Tuesday at 239.35 points.

Over 147.2 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ2.6 trillion.