The sign of the urban area Vinhomes Riverside in Sài Đồng Commune, Long Biên District, Hà Nội. — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI - The market edged lower yesterday as strong selling force weighed on many pillar stock groups, while foreign investors kept fleeing from the two main exchanges. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index closed the trading day at 1,363.09 points, down 0.57 per cent, or 7.87 points. This ended its two gaining sessions.

The market’s breadth was negative as 232 stocks fell while 148 increased. However, the liquidity remained high with more than 768.6 million shares traded on HoSE, worth more than VNĐ25.77 trillion (US$1.13 billion).

After the sharp recovery in the first two sessions of the week, profit-taking activities were reasonable.

Analysts from Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said in a daily report that technically, the benchmark still can not close above the resistance zone of 1,370 - 1,375 points. Therefore, the scenario of extending rallies to hover around the psychological level of 1,400 points has not been activated.

"We need to wait and see more to find the direction," SHS said. 

Selling force increased significantly in the afternoon session, putting many large-cap stocks under pressure.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, witnessed a drop of 0.44 per cent to 1,494.12 points. Of which, 21 stocks of the VN30 basket declined while seven climbed, and two ended flat. 

Vinhomes JSC (VHM) posted the biggest losses yesterday, down 4.31 per cent to VNĐ111,000 per share. The sell-off occurred after Viking Asia Holdings II Fund, backed by KKR Group, announced that it has registered to sell 31.96 million VHM shares and is expected to no longer be a major shareholder in Vinhomes.

Real estate developers like Vincom Retail JSC (VRE), another one of the trio stocks of Vin family, and Novaland (NVL) also dropped 1.58 per cent and 0.58 per cent, respectively.

Other pillar stocks recording big losses were Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), down more than 4 per cent, and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (PVGas, GAS), down 1.91 per cent.

A group of big bank stocks including Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB) and JSC Bank for Investment and Development Of Vietnam (BIDV, BID) contributed to the downward trend. 

However, the index pared some losses on gains in large-cap stocks, led by Hoà Phát Group (HPG), up 1.92 per cent. 

It was followed by Vingroup JSC (VIC) and Vietcombank (VCB).

Similarly, on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index finished lower at 343.11 points, down 0.12 per cent. 

During the session, more than VNĐ4.8 trillion was poured into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 174 million shares. 

Also weighing the market was the large net sell value from foreign investors. Accordingly, they continued to net sell a value of nearly VNĐ1.4 billion on the southern bourse, and a value of VNĐ56.29 billion on HNX. VNS