PV GAS's employees operating equipment at its facility. The company's shares fell sharply by more than 1.7 per cent yesterday, contributing to the market's losses. Photo courtesy of the company

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese stock market retreated on Wednesday as selling force got stronger and liquidity subsided.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) reversed the previous trade's course to close lower yesterday. It dropped by 3.59 points to 1,060.07 points, a 0.34 per cent decrease. The index gained over 12 points on Tuesday.

The breadth of the market was in negative territory with more stocks sliding. Meanwhile, liquidity on the southern bourse also decreased, of which trading value on HoSE reached VNĐ8.2 trillion (US$337.6 million). This is the lowest trading value since November 17, 2020.

The low liquidity showed that investors are no longer interested in the stock market after the strong volatility of September and October.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also posted a loss of 5.41 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 1,0653.65 points. Nine stocks of the VN30 basket added points, while 17 inched down and four ended flat.

According to statistics compiled by financial website vietstock.vn, selling pressure heavily weighed on utilities, manufacturing and real estate industries. Specifically, PV GAS (GAS) led the downtrend with a decrease of 1.71 per cent in market capitalisation.

It was followed by Masan Group (MSN), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE), down at least 1.7 per cent.

Other stocks in banking sector also witnessed big losses, such as Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Sacombank (STB) subdued 1.4 and 2.26 per cent, respectively.

However, the index pared losses on gains in some large-cap stocks, including BIDV (BID), Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Sabeco (SAB) and FPT Corporation (FPT).

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) finished at 227.9 points, down 1.22 points, or 0.53 per cent.

During the session, VNĐ721.77 billion worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of over 39 million ticker symbols, was traded on the northern market.

Foreign investors were net sellers on HoSE after withdrawing a net value of VNĐ80.58 billion on the exchange, while net bought VNĐ21.44 billion on HNX. VNS