A customer at Techcombank's office. Bank stocks posted great losses yesterday due to strong selling pressure, with Techcombank's stocks hitting the biggest daily loss of 7 per cent. — Photo thitruong.nld.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The stock market ended lower on Monday as profit-taking activities weighed sentiment, with hundreds of stocks hitting floor prices. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index declined by 68.31 points, or 4.95 per cent, to 1,310.92 points. During the afternoon session, it even posted a record loss of nearly 80 points to below 1,300 points. The market benchmark dropped 5.44 per cent last week. 

The market's breadth was negative with 443 stocks decreasing, of which 181 stocks saw the biggest intraday loss of 7 per cent. Liquidity remained at low levels as nearly 763 million stocks were traded on the southern market, worth nearly VNĐ21.95 trillion (US$954.8 million). 

Strong sell-off activities cast a shadow over the market's sentiment, causing great losses across all sectors. The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also plunged 77.93 points, or 5.4 per cent, to 1,366.39 points. 

All stocks in the VN30 basket finished lower on Monday, with 16 stocks hitting floor prices.

In the top ten stocks influencing the market's bearish trend, nine stocks, mostly in the banking sector, fell 7 per cent - the maximum daily loss, including PV Gas (GAS), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), BIDV (BID), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB) and Vietinbank (TCB). Meanwhile, Masan Group (MSN) fell 5.92 per cent. 

Many other stocks witnessed negative performance, like the trio of stocks in the Vin family - Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincome Retail (VRE) down in a range of 1.93-6 per cent. 

Analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC said in a letter to customers that in general, from a technical perspective, the VN-Index's trend has weakened significantly and now there is only one important technical support level remaining at 1,350 points, and if it fails to keep this level, the market benchmark VN-Index will inch lower toward 1,200 points. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also settled down during Monday's trade on strong selling force. The index declined by 21.61 points, or 6.02 per cent, to 337.51 points. 

During the session, over VNĐ2.3 trillion worth of stocks, equal to a trading volume of 108.36 million shares, was traded on the northern bourse. 

On the other hand, foreign investors poured into the market, with a total net buying value of more than VNĐ229 billion. Of which, they net bought a value of VNĐ214.66 billion on HoSE, and VNĐ14.41 billion on HNX. — VNS