A production line of brewery company Sabeco (SAB). SAB lost 2.1 per cent on Wednesday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —Vietnamese shares declined on Wednesday, dragged by market heavyweights as selling pressure increased significantly towards the closing minutes of trading.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined 0.11 per cent, to finish the trading day at 1,393.80 points.

It had fallen 0.01 per cent to close Tuesday at 1,395.33 points.

The market breadth was negative as 242 stocks declined while 180 rose and 60 ended flat.

The market’s liquidity was high with nearly 846 million shares traded on the southern market, worth VNĐ23.8 trillion (US$1.04 billion).

The market witnessed strong volatility at the end of the trading session. A series of large stocks dropped sharply, extending the decrease of the VN-Index such as brewery Sabeco (SAB), Vietcombank (VCB), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), FPT Corporation (FPT) and Vietinbank (CTG).

The oil and gas group performed poorly at the end of the session, with Petrovietnam General Services JSC Corporation (PET), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), PV OIL (OIL), Bình Sơn Refinery (BSR), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) all falling.

“VN-Index decreased slightly today with the market experiencing a struggling session,” said BIDV Securities Co.

“Foreign investors continued to be net sellers on both HSX and HNX. The market is likely to continue moving sideways between 1,390-1,400 in the short term.

They net sold VNĐ470.38 billion on HOSE, including Hoà Phát Group (HPG) with VNĐ129.30 billion, Vinhomes (VHM) with VNĐ92.9 billion, and Novaland (NVL) with VNĐ69.85 billion. They were net sellers on HNX with a value of VNĐ12.04 billion.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, VN30-Index, lost 0.14 per cent to finish at 1,505.03 points.

Of the VN30 basket, eight stocks increased while 17 decreased.

On a sector basis, 13 out of 25 sectors decreased, such as wholesale, insurance, securities, information and technology, retail, healthcare, oil and gas, banking, food and beverage, construction materials, and logistics.

On the other side, gainers were seafood processing, real estate, agriculture, home appliance production and rubber production.

Meanwhile, on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rose 0.33 per cent to close at 388.29 points.

The northern market index had climbed 0.55 per cent, to close Tuesday at 387.00 points.

During the session, over 134.4 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ2.5 trillion. — VNS