The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of red with 294 stocks losing and 129 gaining.

Despite losses, total trading volume continued to climb to its highest levels so far this month, reaching VND7.93 trillion ($343.1 million), and much higher compared to August’s VND5 trillion daily average.

The benchmark VN-Index had stayed in the green for most of the morning session, but had immediately dived at the start of the afternoon session, after official figures from the General Statistics Office (GSO) were published showing GDP growth of 2.12 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2020.

According to analysts, although Vietnam's 2.62 percent year-on-year GDP increase in the third quarter is an improvement on the 0.39 percent increase in the second quarter, this figure remains far below the pre-pandemic third-quarter GDP growth of 7.31 percent in 2019, and is likely to have caused investors to sell to take profits in anticipation of falling market sentiment.

GSO had explained that the unpredictable development of Covid-19 led to growth slowdown in almost all sectors. Disruptions to international trade affected Vietnam’s production, export and import activities, and resulted in high unemployment and job shortages.

However, international institutions remain optimistic that Vietnam would see higher growth than most countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, with the Asian Development Bank forecasting 1.8 percent GDP growth by year end, thanks to the country’s success in containing the spread of Covid-19.

The VN30-Index for the stock market’s largest caps this session slumped 0.63 percent, with 25 tickers losing and three gaining.

Topping losses was STB of private Sacombank, down 3.3 percent, followed by SBT of agricultural firm TTC-Sugar, down 3 percent, and ROS of construction firm FLC Faros, with 2.7 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three largest state-owned lenders by assets, VCB of Vietcombank shed 2.3 percent, CTG of VietinBank 1.8 percent, and BID of BIDV 1.5 percent.

Private banks were also all in the red, save for VPB of VPBank which kept its opening price. EIB of Eximbank, TCB of Techcombank, and HDB of HDBank slipped 1.5 percent, 0.9 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.

Other notable losing stocks include those of the Vingroup family. VIC of parent corporation Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, dropped 0.3 percent, while VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes and VRE of mall operator Vincom Retail, the subsidiaries, shed 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.

In other sectors, PLX of petroleum distributor Petrolimex was down 1.8 percent, MSN of food conglomerate Masan Group down 1.8 percent, and VJC of budget carrier Vietjet Air down 1.4 percent.

In the opposite direction VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk topped gains with 3.7 percent. It was followed by two real estate developers, TCH of Hoang Huy Group, and KDH of Khang Dien House, with 2.1 percent and 1 percent respectively, and MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, with 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, lost 1.04 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market shed 0.42 percent.

Foreign investors were again net sellers to the tune of nearly VND630 billion on all three bourses, double the net sell magnitude of the previous session. The most net sold stocks were VNM of Vinamilk and VHM of Vinhomes.