A Vietcombank employee wearing a mask during a transaction with a customer. The bank shares lost more than 1.3 per cent, leading the market's losses yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s stock market was mixed yesterday, with the VN-Index ending its long rally on losses of bank stocks in the last trading minutes.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index closed the last trading day of the week at 1,341.45 points, down 4.1 points, or 0.3 per cent. This marked the first fall of the benchmark since July 26. 

In the morning session, the index still maintained its rally, showing demand was still strong with improved liquidity. 

The market’s breadth was negative with 177 stocks climbing while 200 decreased. However the liquidity was higher as more than VNĐ22.5 trillion (US$978.4 million) was poured into the market, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 736.2 million shares.

The reversal was driven by losses of a series of bank stocks, which account for a large proportion in the VN30-Index. Accordingly, the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a decline of 9.67 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 1,476.79 points. 

Twenty stocks of the VN30 basket slid, while only eight rose and two ended flat. 

Bank stocks led the trend with Vietcombank (VCB) losing the most, down 1.31 per cent. 

Other stocks topping the market's influencers were VPBank (VPB), down 1.94 per cent; PetroVietnam Gas JSC (PVGas, GAS), down 1.49 per cent; Việt Nam Rubber Group JSC (GVR), down 1.87 per cent; and Techcombank (TCB), down 1.33 per cent. 

Large-cap stocks like Vingroup JSC (VIC), Novaland (NVL), Hoà Phát Group (HPG), MBBank (MBB) and Sacombank (STB) also witnessed big losses in market capitalisation. 

Meanwhile, the losses were capped by positive performance of some big names, including Vinhomes JSC (VHM), Becamex (BCM) and Vinamilk (VNM). BCM shares even hit the biggest daily gain of 7 per cent yesterday. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), however, stayed unchanged at 325.46 points yesterday, with the breadth still positive. 

During the session, 117.9 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ4.45 trillion. 

The market struggled in recent sessions, showing the clear division among investors. Investors' sentiment was down on rising concerns after Hà Nội authorities have decided to extend the ongoing social distancing order until August 22. 

Foreign investors continued to be net buyers, but the net value was much lower than the previous session. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ36.12 billion on HoSE, and a value of VNĐ4.28 per cent on HNX. VNS