Hoa Phat Group (HPG)'s steel factory is located in central Quang Ngai Province's Dung Quat Economic Zone. HPG lost 3.5 per cent Thursday.-Photo hoaphat.com.vn

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index declined 0.84 per cent to end Thursday trade at 1,288.62 points.

The southern bourse’s index declined slightly by 0.1 per cent to end Wednesday at 1,292.68 points.

Market breadth was negative with 123 gainers and 332 losers, while 53 shares ended flat.

Traders in the options market showed little appetite to bet on an end to the continuing stock market sell-off on Thursday. Liquidity stayed low with more than 572.5 million shares traded on the southern bourse, worth VND16.5 trillion (US$711.2 million).

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, lost 0.75 per cent to end at 1,325.49 points. Out of 30 stocks in the VN30 basket, five posted gains while 23 decreased.

Banking stocks were hit strongly, with losers including Sacombank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), Military Bank (MBB), Vietnam International Commercial JS Bank (VIB) and Saigon-Hanoi Commercial JS Bank (SHB), and HDBank (HDB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID).

Other big stocks contributing to the downtrend were Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Khang Dien House (KDH), FPT C orporation (FPT), M asan Group (MSN), Ph at Dat Real Estate (PDR), Sabeco (SAB), Vinamilk (VNM), Vi etjet (VJC), SSI Securities Inc (SSI) and two stocks of the Vin family - Vingroup (VIC) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

“Market movement continued to increase and gradually moved to the 1,300 point area,” said Viet Dragon Securities Co (VDSC).

“In general, the gaining movement was still struggling and cautious, reflected in low liquidity and fall compared to the previous session. With this cautious move, it’s expected that the resistance zone of 1,300 - 1,320 points will continue to put great pressure on the market in the near future.

“Therefore, investors should still limit buying as the market is approaching the resistance zone, and in the meantime should prioritise profit-taking and restructure the portfolio towards minimising risks in the near future,” it said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index decreased 1.14 per cent to end Thursday at 311.77 points.

The index had increased 0.96 per cent to end Wednesday at 315.76 points.

Liquidity was higher than the previous session with 87.8 million shares worth nearly VND.2 trillion being traded on the northern market.