Inside a factory of Việt Nam Rubber Group. The company's shares lost 5.6 per cent yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares plunged on Friday as the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant dampened investor sentiment, triggering worries about hits to a nascent economic recovery.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) lost 2.61 per cent to end at 1,443.32 points.

It had lost 0.21 per cent to end Thursday at 1,482.05 points.

The market's breadth was negative with 61 stocks rising, while 415 slid.

Market liquidity declined compared to the previous session as investors poured over VNĐ33 trillion (US$1.4 billion) into the southern exchange, equivalent to a trading volume of 1.1 billion shares.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index lost 2.39 per cent, to end at 1,503.98 points. Twenty-eight in the VN30 basket decreased, while one increased.

Strong selling pressure appeared, causing a series of large stocks to plunge, some stocks were even dragged down to the floor prices. Becamex (BCM) fell to the floor price at VNĐ49,300 per share, The Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR) fell 5.6 per cent to VNĐ36,500 per share, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) dropped 5 per cent to VNĐ42,000 per share, Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) slid 4.6 per cent to VNĐ57,800 per share.

Banking stocks also fell and put great pressure on the overall market, with losers including Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Bank (MBB) and Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Liên Việt Post Bank (LPB).

The securities group were the worst performers with 18 stocks falling, six stocks hitting the floor prices and only one gainer. Việt Nam Bank For Industry & Trade Securities JSC (CTS), Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam Securities Company (BSI), VIX Securities Joint Stock Company (VIX), Việt Dragon Securities Corporation (VDS) and Agribank Securities Corporation (AGR) all plummeted to the floor prices. Industry-leading codes such as SSI Securities (SSI), Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM) or VNDirect (VND) also plunged from 6-6.7 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index lost 1.96 per cent to end Friday at 449.27 points.

During the trading session, nearly 153.8 million shares were traded on HNX, worth nearly VNĐ4 trillion. — VNS