Vinamilk products on shelves at a Winmart store in Hà Nội. The dairy producer's shares were one of a few ticker symbols cushioning the market's losses. VNS Photo Ly Ly Cao

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese stock market pushed back the bottom-fishing demand to end lower on Thursday, as investors reacted cautiously to positive macro data. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the benchmark VN-Index fell for a fifth consecutive session with a decline of 17.55 points, or 1.53 per cent, to 1,126.07 points. It gained slightly Thursday morning on bargain-hunting force. 

The index had lost over 77.2 points this week.

The market’s breadth was back to negative with more stocks sliding after showing some signs of recovery in the morning trade. 

Liquidity also decreased, of which matching value on HoSE reduced by 14.5 per cent over the previous session to VNĐ9.16 trillion (US$384.3 million), equivalent to a matching volume of 416 million shares. 

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also lost 13.22 points, or 1.14 per cent, to 1,147.44 points. Twenty stocks of the VN30 basket posted poor performance, while only six stocks climbed and four stocks ended flat. 

Improved risk appetite after recent big losses and bullish economic reports had lifted the market in the morning trade, but selling force suddenly rose in the last trading minutes causing the benchmark to reverse and fall below the reference price. 

Most experts recommended investors to stay out of the market and limit trading when there are many technical signals showing that the benchmark index is likely to dip to the support zone of 1,100 points.

The General Statistics Office of Vietnam on Thursday said that the country’s GDP in the third quarter of the year increased by 13.6 per cent year-on-year.

For the first nine months, the GDP growth reached 8.83 per cent, the biggest growth of the same period during 2021-2022. 

Pillar stocks in real estate, manufacturing and banking sectors continued to face strong sell-offs, of which Vingroup (VIC) led the bearish trend with a loss of 5.04 per cent. 

Other big ticker symbols contributing to the downside were Becamex (BCM), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), Masan Group (MSN) and VPBank (VPB. These stocks all plummeted at least 1.3 per cent, with BCM even hitting the maximum daily fall of 7 per cent. 

The market’s losses were cushioned by gains of some large-cap stocks, such as Vinamilk (VNM), Vincom Retail (VRE) and PV Gas (GAS), up in a range of 0.96-1.3 per cent. 

The HNX-Index on the northern market’s Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also settled lower on Thursday, extending the losing streak to five straight sessions. It closed the trading day at 249.41 points, a decrease of 2.94 points, or 1.17 per cent. 

During the session, more than 57.8 million shares were traded on HNX, worth nearly VNĐ1.1 trillion. 

On the other hand, foreign investors continued to withdraw capital from both main exchange. Of which, they net sold a value of VNĐ161.6 billion on HoSE and VNĐ10.16 billion on HNX. VNS