Customers at a branch of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB). ACB lost 5.9 per cent on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of ACB

HÀ NỘI - The stock market plunged on Tuesday to hit a new bottom this year as investors fled risk and sought safe havens due to worries about current market volatility.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell sharply by 3.1 per cent, to close at 911.90 points. It also fell on Monday by 1.41 per cent, to close at 941.04 points.

More stocks moved to the downside on the southern bourse, of which only 43 ticker symbols inched higher, while 429 stocks finished lower.

More than 692.3 million shares were traded on HoSE, worth nearly VNĐ10 trillion (US$403.6 million).

The benchmark index was pressured by losses in large-cap stocks, with the 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index posting a decrease of 3.37 per cent, to 904.77 points. Four stocks in the VN30 basket jumped, while 26 stocks slid and four ended flat.

The worst performers in the VN-30 basket were pillar stocks in the banking, oil and gas, retail and real estate industries.

The biggest losers included Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID), Techcombank (TCB), Sacombank (STB), VPBank (VPB), Military Bank (MBB), Vincom Retail (VRE), Mobile World Group (MWG), Novaland (NVL) and Phát Đạt Real Estate (PDR). They declined in the range of 2 to 7 per cent.

Losers in the energy stock group were 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 were also hit by selling forces. The VN-Index's loss was significantly broadened as securities stocks fell 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).

Following the cautious signal of high price demand and the "force sell" movement that has not subsided, the market continued its downtrend, according to Việt Dragon Securities Co.

Currently, the downtrend of the market continues to stop at the lower boundary of the trend channel in VN-Index and VN30-Index with a recovery move.

If the supporting cash flow can help absorb the pressure of "force sell", it is likely that the market will enter a short-term recovery span. Therefore, investors still temporarily need to be cautious about the ongoing pressure of "force sell" and need to closely observe the movement of the supporting cash flow to assess the market's state.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also finished lower. It lost 4.18 per cent to close at 175.78 points.

It had lost 3.35 per cent, to close Monday at 183.45 points.

During the session, VNĐ613 billion worth of shares, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 58 million shares, was traded on the northern market. — VNS