An off-shore rig operated by PV Gas. The company shares fell nearly 5.2 per cent yesterday, leading the market's downside. Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The stock market settled lower on Tuesday as rising selling pressure hurt sentiment.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index reduced by 14.24 points, or nearly 1.2 per cent, to 1,181.29 points. It fell for the second day in a row.

The market’s breadth was negative with 347 stocks declining, while 120 stocks increased.

Liquidity, however, improved compared to the previous session, of which 612 million stocks were traded on the southern bourse, worth over VNĐ13.8 trillion (US$591.1 million).

The market’s benchmark continued the downside risk as sell-off force grew stronger at the end of the session.

Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) said that the liquidity base has dropped sharply since last November. And the market's great falls in the past three months caused investors who just recently joined to lose. “Perhaps this has seriously affected the market’s sentiment,” SHS said in a daily report to customers.

However, with the current low valuation, it is an opportunity for long-term investors to choose and buy stocks with good fundamentals and positive future prospects, the securities added.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also edged down yesterday, down 6.32 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 1,242.05 points.

In the VN30 basket, only ten stocks climbed, while 20 stocks slid.

Stocks in energy, manufacturing and retail sectors led the general downtrend. Of which, PV Gas posted the biggest loss, down 5.16 per cent yesterday.

It was followed by Masan Group (MSN), Vinamilk (VNM), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Đức Giang Chemicals Group (DGC). All the stocks were down at least 2.7 per cent.

Realty stocks also faced sell-off with Becamex (BCM) reducing by 1.6 per cent, Vincom Retail (VRE) down 1.93 per cent and Vinhomes (VHM) down 0.82 per cent.

On the other hand, bank stocks witnessed positive performance with many big names gaining more than 1 per cent, including BIDV (BID), VPBank (VPB), Vietinbank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB) and MBBank (MBB).

The rallies of the banking sector helped cap the market’s losses.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched down 3.25 points, or 1.16 per cent, to end yesterday at 277.94 points.

During the trading session, over VNĐ1.3 trillion worth of shares, equivalent to nearly 75.5 million shares, was traded on the northern bourse.

Foreign investors were still net sellers on the market after net selling more than VNĐ275 billion. Of which, they net sold a value of VNĐ268.65 billion on HoSE and VNĐ6.55 billion on HNX. VNS