Workers loading Hoà Phát's products on a boat. The steel producer's shares saw a fall of 4.09 per cent yesterday, contributing to the market's downtrend. Photo hoaphat.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The indices inched lower on Monday as stocks across all sectors witnessed a strong sell-off. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index dropped another 29.74 points, or 2.06 per cent, to 1,413.58 points after losing 38.73 points in the previous session. 

The market's breadth remained negative, while the liquidity was lower than last Friday's session. Of which, more than 1 billion shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ31.4 trillion (US$1.4 billion). 

The index extended losses as investors' risk appetite fell. The VN30-Index, tracking 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, fell 23.06 points, or 1.53 per cent, to end Monday's trade at 1,480.92 points. 

Only five out of 30 stocks in the VN30 basket posted gains, while 22 declined and three ended flat. 

Profit-taking activities occurred in all sectors, especially in bank stocks. Vietcombank led the market's downtrend yesterday with a loss of 2.65 per cent in capitalisation, followed by PetroVietnam Gas (PV Gas, GAS) and Hoà Phát Group (HPG), down at least 4 per cent. 

Other pillar stocks weighing the benchmark were Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB), HDBank (HDB) and Sabeco (SAB). These stocks fell in a range of 2.39 - 6.13 per cent. 

Vinhomes (VHM) which rose in the morning trade reversed course in the last minutes and fell 0.62 per cent yesterday. 

Experts from Saigon - Hanoi Securities SJC (SHS) said that the market's trend and sentiment are weakening and the VN-Index may be dragged down and test support levels to find bottom-fishing demand.

Investors who have taken some profits in the last week of November and maintained a moderate proportion of stocks last week can watch for corrections next week to fall back to the support area at 1,420- 1,425 points hit in July and psychological support of 1,400 points (if any) to increase the proportion of stocks, SHS added. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index slid by 13.42 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 435.85 points. 

During the session, investors poured over VNĐ4.09 trillion into the market, equivalent to a trading volume of 155.7 million shares. 

Meanwhile, foreign investors returned to the market after net buying a value of VNĐ305.72 billion. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ308.83 billion on HoSE, while net sold a value of VNĐ3.11 billion on HNX. VNS