Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR) workers collect milk latex. The company's shares lost 1.4 per cent yesterday. — Photo vnrubbergroup.com

HÀ NỘI — Shares dropped further on Thursday, pressured by the slump of large-cap stocks that were hit strongly during the last minutes of the session by increased profit-taking.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index dropped 0.27 per cent, to 1,498.26 points.

The market's breadth was neutral with 222 gainers and 228 losers.

During the session, nearly 785 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth over VNĐ24.8 trillion (US$1 billion).

The benchmark's downtrend was due to losses of many large-cap stocks.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, fell 0.54 per cent, to 1,497.44 points.

Of the VN30 basket, 21 stocks slid, while only seven inched higher and two ended flat.

In the VN-30 basket, the worst performers included The Việt Nam Rubber Group (GVR), losing 1.4 per cent, Novaland (NVL), dropping 1.2 per cent, FPT Corporation (FPT), losing 0.5 per cent and PVPower (POW), declining 0.6 per cent.

The banking-financial stocks also performed poorly, with losers being Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB), Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB), VPBank (VPB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and SSI Securities Inc (SSI).

'Vin' family stocks also lost ground, pressuring the overall market with Vingroup (VIC) losing 0.5 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE) declining 0.2 per cent and Vinhomes (VHM) down 1.9 per cent.

“In the next sessions, the market may continue to move sideways around 1,505 points to gain momentum and to bounce back to 1,520 resistance area; if not, the market might return to accumulate around the 1,485 level for a few sessions as the index has gone quite far from the short-term MA lines and might come back to test these lines,” BIDV Securities Co said.

On HoSE, foreign investors net sold more than six million shares, with a net selling value of more than VNĐ116 billion.

Đất Xanh Group (DXG) was under the strongest net selling pressure with VNĐ170 billion; Vinamilk (VNM) and Hoà Phát Group (HPG) were also net sold VNĐ129 billion and VNĐ90 billion, respectively.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), meanwhile, the HNX-Index rose 0.15 per cent to end at 462.80 points.

During the trading session, investors poured more than VNĐ3.7 trillion into the bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 116 million shares. — VNS