A facility of PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (PV GAS). GAS lost 0.8 per cent yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares dropped on Thursday as large-cap stocks were hit by strong selling pressure, especially during the ATC session.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 1.35 per cent to close at 1,502.35 points. It had edged up 0.19 per cent to close Wednesday at 1.522.90 points.

The market breadth was negative with 372 stocks falling and 89 rising.

Liquidity was at a low level with more than VNĐ27 trillion (US$1.18 billion) poured into the southern market, equivalent to a trading volume of over 795 million shares.

The index's decrease was due to declines in pillar stocks. Accordingly, the VN30-Index lost 0.97 per cent, to 1,541.96 points.

Six of the 30 biggest stocks in capitalisation on HoSE posted gains, while 24 slid.

In the VN-30 basket, the worst performers were Vinhomes (VHM), Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Mobile World Group (MWG), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) and Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Masan Group (MSN), Novaland (NVL), Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR), Phú Nhuận Jewelry (PNJ), Mobile World Group (MWG), Sabeco (SAB) and SSI Securities Inc (SSI).

Banking stocks 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), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietinbank (CTG), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Liên Việt Post Bank (LPB).

The shares of the 'Vin' family performed poorly as IT-real-estate-manufacturing-retail conglomerate Vingroup (VIC) and real estate giant Vinhomes (VHM) dropped.

Vingroup (VIC) dropped 1.2 per cent and Vinhomes (VHM) was down 1.7 per cent.

According to data from the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD), domestic investors opened 270,217 new securities accounts in March, an all-time record and far surpassing the old peak reached in December 2021. Individual investors opened 270,011 new accounts in addition to 206 accounts from institutional investors.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost by 1.17 per cent to end at 441.61 points. The northern bourse’s index had lost 2.03 per cent to end Wednesday at 446.83 points.

Liquidity on the northern exchange declined with 86 million shares worth VNĐ2.8 trillion being traded.— VNS