Clients at a VPBank transaction office. The bank's shares surged more than 2 per cent yesterday, helping curb the market's downtrend. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Benchmark indices extended losses on Wednesday, but the downtrend was curbed by gains in large-cap stocks. Foreign inflows continued to provide some support to the market.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) declined by 4.25 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 1,018.88 points. It lost a total of 33.6 points this week due to a strong selling force.

Stocks still leaned toward the downside, with 243 ticker symbols inching lower on the southern bourse, while 90 stocks added points. Liquidity also dropped over the previous session, of which the trading value on HoSE dipped 17.7 per cent to over VNĐ14.4 trillion (US$607.8 million), equivalent to a trading volume of more than 857.3 million shares.

Gains of large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket helped the index pare some losses. Accordingly, the VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, rose by 3.31 points, or 0.32 per cent, to end the day at 1,033.1 points.

In the VN30 basket, 14 stocks climbed while 13 headed down, of which two hit the maximum daily loss of 7 per cent. And three stocks stayed unchanged.

In general, the VN-Index escaped the mid-term downtrend and is trading in the first recovery wave, with a support level of around 1,000 points, said Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC.

Statistics showed that the real estate, utility, and banking sectors led the market's trend yesterday, with Vingroup (VIC) being the biggest loser. It was followed by PV Gas (GAS), Vietinbank (CTG), Novaland (NVL), and Vietcombank (VCB), down in a range of 0.38-7 per cent.

Lifting the sentiment somewhat, some pillar stocks reported positive performance, led by VPBank (VPB), Sacombank (STB), and Vinamilk (VNM), up at least 1.27 per cent.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also settled lower on Wednesday, down 3.07 points, or 1.48 per cent, to 204.46 points.

During the trade, more than 94.6 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth over VNĐ1.3 trillion.

On the other hand, foreign investors extended their long streak of net buying on the market as they bought nearly VNĐ1.7 trillion worth of shares on both main exchanges. Especially, they net bought nearly VNĐ1.66 trillion on HoSE and VNĐ27.54 billion on HNX. VNS