Hoà Phát Group's galvanised steel coil loaded on a boat for export. The steel marker's shares fell the most yesterday, capping gains of the market benchmark. Photo hoaphat.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares ended mixed on Thursday as selling pressure continued to weigh on the market, while the VN-Index rebounded. 

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Mính Stock exchange (HoSE) inched 2.85 points higher, or 0.21 per cent, to 1,379.72 points. However the market breadth was still negative with 274 stocks falling while 112 increased. 

The market liquidity also kept running from the market as 591.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ18.5 trillion (US$676.8 million).

The index recovered on the back of some large-cap stocks despite selling forces persisting across the market in general. 

The VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, declined 0.17 per cent to 1,486.96 points. Sixteen of the biggest stocks in the VN30 basket still plunged while twelve bounced back and two ended flat. 

Accordingly, Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) was the biggest gainer in the market yesterday, up 3.88 per cent.

It was followed by stocks in real estate, banking and utilities stocks. These stocks were No Va Land Investment Group Corporation (Novaland, NVL), Vietcombank (VCB), VietnamPetro Gas JSC (PVGAS, GAS), and Vinhomes JSC (VHM). They rose in a range of 0.72 - 2.68 per cent.

Other stocks posting big gains of more than 1 per cent included Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), up 1 per cent, Vietinbank (CTG), up 1.33 per cent, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), up 1.12 per cent and Vincom Retail JSC (VRE), up 1.59 per cent. 

Meanwhile, losses in many big stocks capped the index’s recovery. Hoà Phát Group (HPG) was leading the losses, down 1.56 per cent. Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk, VNM) and Sacombank (STB) also posted losses of 1.44 per cent and 2.52 per cent, respectively. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index still lost 0.23 per cent to 315.08 points. The HNX30-Index, tracking 30 biggest stocks on the northern market, plummeted 0.27 per cent to 496.74 points. 

During the trading session, nearly 93 million stocks were traded on the exchange, worth VNĐ2.16 trillion.

Analysts from Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the market needs a strong volatile session with rising liquidity to get out of the current pullback and sideways trend.

On the contrary, foreign investors continued to flock back to the market as they net bought a total value of VNĐ177.56 billion on both exchanges. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ182.67 billion on HoSE, while net sold a value of VNĐ5.11 billion on HNX. VNS