An employee of PV GAS testing equipment at a facility. The company's shares witnessed the worst performance yesterday with a loss of 7 per cent and led to the market's downtrend. Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares finished the week on a negative note, as the selling force gradually grew stronger at the end of the session causing big falls in the market.

Weighed by a bearish trend, the market benchmark VN-Index broke down the 1,300 thresholds set on Wednesday. The index fell to 1,284.08 points, a 23.72 point decline, or 1.81 per cent. 

On the southern bourse, the market's breadth was negative with up to 375 stocks sliding, while 85 stocks inched up.

However, liquidity was higher than the previous session, of which nearly VNĐ17 trillion (US$731.6 million) worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of over 603.3 million shares, was traded on HoSE. 

The benchmark opened higher at the beginning of the trading day, but investors' risk aversion mood rose, causing many stocks to trade lower. 

The VN30-Index also posted a loss of 17.23 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 1,325.69 points. Only four of the 30 biggest stocks in the VN30 basket advanced, while 25 stocks plummeted with one stock hitting maximum daily. One stock ended flat.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also edged down after gaining points for two consecutive sessions. The northern market's benchmark index closed yesterday at 306.44 points, down 6.3 points, or 2.01 per cent. 

During the trading day, nearly 98.4 million shares were traded on HNX, worth over VNĐ2.6 trillion. 

Data compiled by vietstock.vn showed that PV Gas (GAS) led the downside risk yesterday after registered the biggest intraday loss of 7 per cent. Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), FPT Corporation (FPT), BIDV (BID) and Vietinbank (CTG) were also in the top stocks manipulating the general tendency. The stocks dropped at least 2 per cent. 

The poor performance was also weighed by great losses of other pillar stocks in all sectors, including VPBank (VPB), Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM), Petrolimex (PLX), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), Becamex (BCM) and Vincom Retail (VRE).

Foreign investors continued to disburse investments on the Vietnamese stock market, but with a much smaller amount than the previous session. Accordingly, they net bought a value of VNĐ89.19 billion on HoSE and VNĐ3.08 billion on the northern bourse. VNS