An investor looks at the price boards at a Vietnamese securities firm.
Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

Plunging 9.35 points, or 0.97 percent, to 955.79 points Monday, VN-Index faces its biggest losing session since December 2. 

Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which VN-Index is based, saw an overwhelming 251 stocks losing compared to 90 gaining on Monday.

Order-matched transactions remained relatively low at VND2.23 trillion ($96.59 million), compared to last month’s average liquidity of VND2.8 trillion ($121.28 million), having also fallen nearly 10 percent over the previous session.

VN30-Index for Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks sank even further, at 1.24 percent, 26 tickets losing and three gaining, with 17 stocks in red having lost 1 percent or more.

ROS shares of real estate developer FLC Faros was again the biggest losing stock on the market, its seventh consecutive session in this position, once again hitting floor price, dropping 6.9 percent.

It was followed by VCB of Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state lenders by assets, which fell 2.7 percent. The other two, BID of BIDV, shed 1.9 percent, while CTG of VietinBank bucked the trend of banking stocks this session having added 0.2 percent.

VRE of Vincom Retail, the retail subsidiary of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, also sank 2.7 percent. VIC shares of parent company Vingroup fell 0.7 percent, and VHM shares of real estate developer and sister corporation Vinhomes lost 2.1 percent.

Shares of private banks lost hard this session, with TCB of Techcombank losing 2.5 percent, VPB of VPBank 2.2 percent, HDB of HDBank 2 percent, and STB of Sacombank 1.5 percent.

Other major losing stocks this session included GMD of sea freight and port services firm Gemadept, down 2.2 percent, and MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group, down 1.6 percent.

The only other two stocks to gain this session were GAS of state-owed energy giant PetroVietnam Gas, which rose 3.2 percent, and EIB of private mid-sized lender Eximbank, which gained 1.4 percent.

Foreign investors net bought VND27 billion ($1.17 million) worth of shares this session, with buying power focused on HPG of leading steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, and E1VFVN30 of exchange traded fund VFMVN30, which is structured so that it replicates the performance of blue chips basket VN30.

Meanwhile, HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s second main bourse for small and mid-cap stocks, dropped 1.13 percent, while UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies shed 1.36 percent.