Vietinbank's transaction office during working hours. The bank shares fell 7 per cent, the biggest daily losses, yesterday. — Photo courtesy of Vietinbank

HÀ NỘI — Shares plummeted yesterday on profit-taking activities with many bank stocks hitting the biggest daily loss of 7 per cent. 

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) lost 55.8 points, or 4.29 per cent, to close Monday's trade at 1,243.51 points. The index finished last week at 1,299.31 points, but still declined 3.6 per cent for the week. 

The market’s breadth was negative as 346 stocks plunged while 50 stocks rose. The liquidity was high with over 731 million shares being traded on the southern bourse, worth more than VNĐ21.8 trillion (US$947 million).

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index witnessed a big drop of 63.9 points, or 4.44 per cent, to 1,374.15 points. Twenty-nine of these stocks in the VN30 basket slid with four stocks posting maximum daily losses, while only one stock climbed. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchanges (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched down 5.1 per cent to 292.06 points. 

During the session, over 130.1 million shares were traded on HNX, worth nearly VNĐ3 trillion.

Selling pressure weighed on the whole market since the morning session opened. Stocks from all sectors, especially banking, recorded big losses. 

The market was also affected after Hà Nội and 16 other provinces started applying stricter restrictions to prevent the ongoing fourth wave of COVID-19 yesterday.

In the top five stocks influencing the market’s downward trend, Vietcombank (VCB) lost the most in market capitalisation, down 5.37 per cent. It was followed by Vinhomes JSC (VHM), Techcombank (TCB) and JSC Bank For Investment And Development Of Vietnam (BIDV, BID) with the two bank stocks losing more than 6.7 per cent.

Many stocks, mostly in the banking field, even hit the maximum daily loss of 7 per cent yesterday, including VPBank (VPB), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPB) and Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR).

Others from utilities, information technology (IT), transportation and logistics, and retail group also witnessed poor performance. 

However, there were still some stocks running contrary to the market’s general trend, up nearly 1 per cent to more than 2 per cent. These stocks included Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu House Development JSC (HDC), DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG) and Khang Điền House Trading and Investment JSC (KDH), on positive business results.

Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities Joint Stock Company (SHS) said that the market was likely to continue to adjust to lower price ranges this week to seek a return of demand.

Bảo Việt Securities Company said that the benchmark will maybe test the resistance zone of 1,333 - 1,348 points in the short-term. And the second quarter financial results will be a factor supporting stock groups at the moment. 

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net sellers on the southern market, with a net value of VNĐ101.44 billion, but net bought a value of VNĐ15.43 billion on HNX. — VNS