5G phones produced by VinSmart, a subsidairy of Vingroup. Vingroup's shares lost more than 2 per cent on Wednesday. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares fell for a second day on Wednesday on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange with heavyweights like Vingroup’s stocks and banks behind this fall.

Stronger selling pressure in the afternoon trade pushed the VN-Index below the threshold. The southern bourse’s index decreased 0.62 per cent to close at 1,333.61 points. It lost 1 per cent in the last two sessions.

Liquidity also declined nearly 30 per cent in both volume and value, reaching 626 million shares worth VNĐ19.6 trillion (US$852.2 million), the lowest in the last six trading sessions.

Vingroup (VIC) and its real estate arm Vinhomes (VHM) were the two shares pulling the index down the most. VIC slipped more than 2 per cent, while VHM fell 1.6 per cent.

Banking shares – which were used to the market’s momentum – also slumped. Fifteen lenders lost value on Wednesday, three of them appearing on the list of top 10 stocks weighing on the market most. They included VPBank (VPB), down 2.4 per cent; Techcombank (TCB), down 1.7 per cent; and Vietinbank (CTG), down 1.5 per cent.

In addition, many stocks in the VN30 basket (which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity) also declined, such as PV Gas (GAS), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Petrolimex (PLX), PV Power (POW), Masan Group (MSN) and Vinamilk (VNM) with a decrease of more than 1 per cent each.

Selling pressure also spread on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, restraining the HNX-Index’s rally to just 0.23 per cent to close at 347.28 points.

The rising streak on the northern bourse has extended for nine consecutive sessions with accumulative growth of nearly 5 per cent.

Liquidity decreased here, however, with nearly 134 million shares worth VNĐ2.9 trillion traded, down 26 per cent in volume and 23 per cent in value compared to the previous session.

According to analysts at Saigon Securities Inc, the short-term outlook for the stock market is uncertain because it is still not possible to fully assess the economic effects of the 4th wave of COVID-19 as well as the official time when HCM City and southern provinces can return to normal trading activities.

In the third quarter, the profit growth of listed companies may slow down or decrease compared to the same period last year, which will not be too surprising when consumption, investment and net exports are all declining amid the pandemic, they said in its September report.

Foreign investors continued offloading shares in HCM City’s market for a ninth session with net sell value of nearly VNĐ446 billion on Wednesday.

They were net buyers in Hà Nội’s market for 12 consecutive sessions for net value of VNĐ8 billion. — VNS