Inside a warehouse of Hòa Phát Group. The steel producer's shares plunged more than 2.5 per cent, leading the market's bearish trend. Photo hoaphat.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares inched lower on Friday as rising selling pressure in the afternoon session weighed on the market’s sentiment. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index dropped 11.63 points, or 0.93 per cent, to 1,234.03 points. 

The market’s breadth was still negative as 269 stocks declined, while 74 stocks increased. Liquidity, however, rose sharply over the previous session. Matching value on the southern market was up 48.8 per cent to VNĐ14.5 trillion (US$614.4 billion).

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a fall of 10.04 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 1,252.78 points. 

Of the VN30 basket, only seven stocks advanced, while 22 dipped and one stayed flat. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNx) also ended the week lower, down 6.81 points, or 2.43 per cent, to 272.88 points. 

During the trading day, over VNĐ1.6 trillion worth of stocks were traded on the northern bourse, equivalent to a trading value of nearly VNĐ81.7 million shares. 

The market was in the red due to a stronger sell-off. 

According to statistics from a financial website, Hòa phát Group (HPG) led the downtrend with a decrease of 2.6 per cent. 

Many attractive large-cap stocks from banking and manufacturing, real estate, IT and retail were also under selling pressure. Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG), Vinhomes (VHM), Vingroup (VIC), Masan Group (MSN) and FPT Corporation (FPT) all fell at 0.9 per cent on the last trading day. 

An analyst from the Sài Gòn - Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS) said that the market benchmark VN-Index continues to accumulate above the nearest support zone of around 1,240 points. The positive point is that the demand is still increasing in the industry groups, including industrial zones, construction, electricity and water.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net sellers on both main exchanges. Accordingly they sold a total of VNĐ508.72 billion on HoSE and HNX, of which they sold a value of VNĐ422.61 billion on HoSE and VNĐ86.11 billion on HNX. — VNS