A Masan pork-processing factory in Hà Nam Province. MSN was one of the stocks behind the downward trend on Thursday. — Photo baodautu.vn

HÀ NỘI — Stocks sank during Thursday's market meltdown amid strong selling forces.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE), the VN-Index fell steadily to 1,074.52 points, down 29.74 points (2.69 per cent) against the previous session. 

The market was overrun by decliners as their headcount reached 315, against 53 advancers. Remarkably, 59 stocks hit floor prices and just five sat at the other end. 

"Stocks retreated so quickly. The upward trend was fragile whereas the downward trend was robust," said an investor.

HOSE was slack on Thursday since investors traded just VNĐ9.8 trillion worth of shares on the exchange (US$410 million).

The VN30-Index echoed the VN-Index pattern with a loss of 36.02 points (3.22 per cent), ending the session at 1,081.36 points. In the basket, 28 stocks slid, one stayed flat and one climbed.   

Hòa Phát Group (HPG) led the market downturn with a loss of 6.25 per cent. Other stocks behind the bearish trend included Vietcombank (VCB), Masan Group (MSN), Mobile World Investment (MWG), and Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR).  

No sector ended the session on the front foot as bearish sentiment was witnessed across the board. The securities sector was the main catalyst for the stumble with a sector-wide drop of 6.28 per cent.

In the sector, SSI Securities (SSI) lost 6.7 per cent, followed by VNDirect Securities (VND) and Việt Capital Securities (VCI).

Seafood was the next sector dragging down indices as it saw lots of red on the screen. Major decliners included Vĩnh Hoàn Corp (VHC), Nam Việt Corp (ANV) and I.D.I International Development and Investment (IDI).

In the realty sector, the trio stocks of the Vin family - Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom (VRE) - saw mixed results. While Vinhomes and Vincom fell slightly, Vingroup minted a gain of 0.17 per cent.

"Land slots in Hà Nội would be the most hard-hit section, should the liquidity in realty market fall," forecast an analyst. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) receded on Thursday, losing 6.99 points (2.89 per cent) to end at 235.13 points. 

Foreign investors withdrew money from the market by net-selling a total of around VNĐ125.98 billion worth of shares on the two exchanges. Of which, they net sold VNĐ133.6 billion on HoSE and net bought VNĐ7.62 billion on HNX. — VNS