Novaland's office in An Phú Ward, District 2, HCM City. Shares of Novaland (NVL) lost 7 per cent on Monday. — Photo Novaland

HÀ NỘI — The stock market declined on Monday as stocks across all sectors faced strong a sell-off from early in the session.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell sharply by 1.41 per cent, to close at 941.04 points.

More stocks moved to the downside on the southern bourse, of which only 86 ticker symbols inched higher, while 371 stocks finished lower.

More than 666 million shares were traded on HoSE, worth nearly VNĐ9.5 trillion (US$384 million).

The benchmark index was pressured by losses in large-cap stocks, with the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posting a decrease of 1.32 per cent, to 936.31 points. Ten stocks in the VN30 basket jumped, while 20 stocks slid and none ended flat.

The worst performers in the VN-30 basket were pillar stocks in the banking, retail and real estate industries. The biggest losers included Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Techcombank (TCB), Tiên Phong Bank (TCB), VPBank (VPB), Military Bank (MBB), Mobile World Group (MWG), Novaland (NVL) and Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR). Novaland hit the daily limit decline of 7 per cent.

Energy stocks also performed negatively with losers such as Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD) and Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

Securities stocks supported the indices as they increased toward the end of the session. The VN-Index's loss was significantly narrowed as securities stocks rose strongly, such as VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), Viet Capital Incorporation (VCI), Agribank Securities Corporation (AGR) and APG Securities Joint Stock Company (APG).

The market diverged strongly and the supply still showed no signs of improvement in the weak groups. Thus, the support move has not been confirmed, said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

It’s expected that the market will still decline to test support signals around 950 points of VN-Index and 930 points of VN30-Index.

Therefore, investors should limit buying, continue to closely observe the support move to assess the market's status and consider lowering the weight if the stock shows signs of breaking support, it said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also finished lower. It lost 3.35 per cent, to 183.45 points.

During the session, VNĐ734 billion worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 65.6 million shares, was traded on the northern market. — VNS