Nhơn Trạch 2 Thermal Power Plant, run by PV Power (POW). POW lost 7 per cent Tuesday. — Photo pvpower.vn

HÀ NỘI - Vietnamese shares lost ground in a volatile session on Tuesday as bargain-hunting demand failed to rescue the market, which was ravaged by a continued and massive selling force.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed the day at 1,006.20 points, a decrease of 3.48 per cent. It had gained slightly 0.63 per cent thanks to bargain purchases on Monday.

The market's sentiment was negative with more stocks decreasing, of which 46 stocks inched higher and 435 reduced. Liquidity increased compared to the previous session, with more than 672 million shares traded, equivalent to a value of VNĐ12.9 trillion (US$539 million).

The index's reversal was caused by some pillar stocks as the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posted a loss of 3.59 per cent, to finish Tuesday at 1,001.68 points. Of the VN30 basket, one stock climbed, while 28 declined and one stock ended flat.

Among the worst performers were Military Bank (MBB), PV Power (POW), SSI Securities (SSI), Sacombank (STB), Techcombank (TCB), Tiên Phong Bank and Vincom Retail (VRE), all hitting the daily limit decline of 7 per cent.

Persistent sell-off pressure hit many key sectors of the market. On a sector basis, all 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including insurance, oil and gas, banking, wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, real estate, food and beverage, retail, healthcare, seafood production, construction materials, securities, and plastic and chemical production.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also ended lower. The northern market index lost 4.82 per cent, to close Tuesday at 218.78 points. It had gained 1.66 per cent to close Monday at 229.85 points.

Nearly 73.9 million shares were traded on the HNX, worth VNĐ1.1 trillion.

"Regarding the transactions of foreign investors, they were net buyers on both HoSE and HNX. In the coming sessions, it is likely that VN-Index will struggle around 1,000 points," said BIDV Securities Co.

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ159.92 billion on HOSE, including Vingroup (VIC) with VNĐ65.56 billion, Đức Giang Chemical (DGC) with VNĐ49.01 billion, Vinamilk (VNM) with VNĐ47.43 billion. They were net buyers on HNX with the value of VNĐ2.05 billion. VNS