Clients at a transaction office of Vietinbank. The bank's shares lost 6 per cent yesterday, leading the market's downtrend. Photo courtesy of Vietinbank

HÀ NỘI — The stock market opened the new week on a negative note, with both benchmark indices dropping more than 2 per cent due to weak risk appetite.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended the day at 1,174.35, a decline of nearly 29 points, or 2.4 per cent. This was the lowest since July 13. 

On the southern bourse, the market's breadth was in negative territory as more ticker symbols witnessed a downtrend. Meanwhile, liquidity improved, of which matching value on HoSE increased by 61 per cent over the previous session to nearly VNĐ16 trillion (US$673.5 million).

Many large-cap stocks on the southern market also posted big losses. Specifically, the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index plunged 28.19 points, or 2.32 per cent, to 1,187.22 points.

Of the VN30 basket, up to 27 stocks went down, while only two inched higher and one ended flat. 

Investors turned more cautious after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and other major central banks, including the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB), decided to raise key interest rates.

Statistics from the financial website vietstock.vn showed that banking, real estate and manufacturing industries continued to lead the market's general trend. 

In the top five stocks weighing on the market, Vietinbank (CTG) lost the most in market capitalisation with a decrease of 7 per cent. The other four stocks included BIDV (BID), Vinhomes (VHM), Vinamilk (VNM), and VP Bank (VPB), down at least 2.27 per cent. 

Stocks in retail, logistic, information technology and utilities also contributed to the downside. 

However, the market is likely to recover from some bottom-fishing demand. In addition, analysts from MB Securities JSC (MBS) said that the market will focus on macro reports and business results this week, which are expected to be positive compared to the same period last year. 

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also ended lower yesterday, down 8.76 points, or 3.31 per cent, to 255.68 points. 

During the session, more than 87.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth over VNĐ1.8 trillion.

Foreign investors also decided to take a more cautious approach as they withdrew investments from the market. According, they net sold VNĐ558.42 billion on HoSE, but purchased a net value of VND1.39 billion on HNX. VNS