Transactions at Techcombank. Techcombank (TCB) declined by 2.5 per cent on Thursday. — Photo courtesy of Techcombank

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares declined on Thursday, dragged by market heavyweights as selling pressure increased significantly towards the closing minutes of trading.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined 0.56 per cent, or 7.10 points, to finish the trading day at 1,261.99 points.

It had jumped 13.05 points, or 1.04 per cent, to close Wednesday's trade at 1,269.09 points.

The market breadth Thursday was negative as 254 stocks declined while 163 rose and 43 stocks ended flat.

The market’s liquidity was high with nearly 711.5 million shares traded on the southern market, worth VNĐ21.6 trillion (US$931.7 million).

The market witnessed strong volatility at the end of the trading session. A series of large stocks dropped sharply, extending the decrease of the VN-Index. Vingroup (VIC) decreased by 2.5 per cent to VNĐ57,700 per share, Techcombank (TCB) declined by 2.5 per cent to VNĐ126,500 per share, The Vietnam Rubber Group - Joint Stock Company (GVR) decreased by 1.9 per cent to VNĐ26,500 per share, Hòa Phát Group (HPG) decreased by 1.9 per cent to VNĐ61,500 per share.

“The VN-Index is forecasted to test the resistance zone of 1,275-1,285 points in the next few sessions,” said Trần Xuân Bách, a stock analyst at Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC).

“The index might face pressure to correct when approaching this zone. In general, the market is likely to continue to have cumulative sideways movements to create a new base above 1,200 in the short term.

“The 1,275-1,285 zone remains a strong resistance zone that the index needs to break to reclaim its gaining trend in the short term.

"Investors should increase the proportion of shares in the portfolio to 40-45 per cent.

"They should consider opening short-term positions if the market breaks the resistance zone of 1,275-1,285 points, he said.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, lost 0.72 per cent to finish Thursday at 1,370.18 points.

Of the VN30 basket, seven stocks increased while 23 decreased.

On a sector basis, 19 out of 25 sectors decreased, such as insurance, food and beverage, seafood processing, real estate, agriculture, home appliance production, logistics, construction and construction materials.

Meanwhile, on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rose 1.66 per cent to close Thursday at 287.03 points.

The northern market index jumped 0.92 per cent to close Wednesday at 282.33 points.

During the session, over 127.7 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ2.8 trillion. — VNS