An HAGL Agrico's farm. HNG was one of the stocks behind the market's fall on Thursday. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

HÀ NỘI — The market closed lower on Thursday as strong selling forces depressed indices.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index started off the afternoon with a steady rise. It hit a peak at around 2pm and then fell off to the baseline.

The index rose again at 2:15pm and reached half the previous peak. It held steady for about 15 minutes and suddenly suffered a free fall in the last minutes to 1,273.66 points, roughly 1.62 points (0.13 per cent) below the baseline.

The southern exchange was overrun by decliners whose number reached 243. Advancers' head count, meanwhile, was just 94. Three stocks hit ceiling prices whereas two sat at the other end.

Thursday was a busy day for HoSE as investors traded 558 million shares on the exchange, equivalent to about VNĐ14 trillion (US$600 million).

The VN30-Index echoed the VN-Index pattern but with a slighter loss. It lost just 0.47 points (0.04 per cent) to reach 1,299.93 points. In the basket, 11 stocks climbed, four stayed flat and 15 slid.

No Va Land (NVL) was leading the market's fall with a loss of 1.54 per cent. Other stocks behind the bearish trend include BIDV (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Investment and Industrial Development (BCM) and Vinhomes (VHM).

Agricultural firms were the main catalyst for the slump with a sector-wide drop of 1.76 per cent. In the sector, Hoàng Anh Gia Lai Agricultural JSC (HNG) lost 2.68 per cent, followed by Hoàng Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG) and Sao Mai Group (ASM).

E-Equipment was the next sector contributing to the slump as it ended lower over slides in GELEX Group (GEX) and SAM Holdings (SAM). Rangdong (RAL) was a bright spot with a slight rise of 0.3 per cent.

The trio stocks of the Vin family – Vingroup (VIC), Vincom (VRE) and Vinhomes (VHM) – saw mixed results. The first gained 1.19 per cent, the second 0.34 per cent, whereas the last lost 0.33 per cent. Overall, the realty sector declined by 0.51 per cent.

"Realty firms are coming under pressure from the governmental restrictions on credit room and the gloomy outlook of the corporate bond market," said a securities expert.

The banking sector also saw lots of red on the screen. Big decliners include BIDV (BID), VietinBank (CTG), Techcombank (TCB) and VPBank (VPB). About four names gained points but they were outnumbered by decliners, resulting in a sector-wide fall of 0.36 per cent.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 1.4 points (0.46 per cent) to reach 301.19 points.

Foreign investors poured money into the market by net-purchasing a total of around VNĐ134.74 billion worth of shares on the two exchanges. Of which, they net bought VNĐ120.56 billion on HoSE and VNĐ14.18 billion on HNX. — VNS