A facility of PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS). GAS lost 1.5 per cent Thursday. — Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares dropped 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 dropped 1.05 per cent, to 1,370.21 points.

The market's breadth was negative with only 132 gainers, and 311 losers.

During the session, nearly 810.7 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ23.8 trillion (US$1.04 billion).

The benchmark's downtrend was due to losses of many large-cap stocks, especially in oil and gas and banking sectors.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, fell 0.60 per cent, to 1,426.87 points.

Of the VN30 basket, 17 stocks slid, while 11 inched higher and two ended flat.

Banking stocks differentiate, with losers including Vietcombank (VCB), Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Liên Việt Post Bank (LPB).

On the other side, gainers in the banking group were Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (STB) and Military Bank (MBB).

Energy stocks also dropped strongly with many losers such as Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS).

Construction and real estate stocks also declined with Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), Novaland (NVL), Becamex (BCM), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR) all losing ground.

Twenty out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including IT, oil and gas, retail, seafood production, wholesale and healthcare, rubber production, agriculture, and food and beverage, logistics and construction materials.

On the other side, gainers included banking, securities, and insurance.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), meanwhile, the HNX-Index lost 3.53 per cent to end at 366.61 points.

During the trading session, investors poured nearly VNĐ2.3 trillion into the bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of more than 99.5 million shares. — VNS