A plane of Vietnam Airlines landed in Soekarno‑Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia. The flag carrier's shares hit the biggest daily gain of 7 per cent on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —The stock market ended mixed on Thursday as the benchmark index was weighed by great losses in large-cap stocks.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) opened the first trading session after a long holiday on a negative note. It dropped by 8.51 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 1,040.61 points.

The 1,040-point level is proving to be a significant support zone recently as there were times in the session when the VN-Index broke below the level but then bounced back.

The breadth of the market was in negative territory as there were more stocks declining on the southern bourse. Liquidity was mostly unchanged with the trading value and volume of nearly VNĐ10.5 trillion (US$447.6 million) and 625.8 million shares, respectively.

The index's losses were mainly due to the downtrend of many large-cap stocks. The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, declined by 11.79 points, or 1.12 per cent, to close the day at 1,039.64 points.

Twenty-one stocks of the VN30 basket inched lower, while six increased and three stayed flat.

Statistics showed that Vietcombank (VCB) was the biggest loser of the market, down 2.21 per cent in the market capitalisation. It was followed by Masan Group (MSN), Sabeco (SAB), Vingroup (VIC) and Vinamilk (VNM). These stocks posted losses in a range of 1.54-3.14 per cent.

Other ticker symbols witnessing poor performance, contributing to the bearish sentiment, were Vietinbank (CTG), down 2.08 per cent, VPBank (VPB) down 1.76 per cent, Techcombank (TCB) lost 1.53 per cent, Hòa Phát Group (HPG) down 1.62 per cent, and Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) down 3.32 per cent.

In contrast, Vietnam Airlines (HVN) registered the maximum intraday gain of 7 per cent on Thursday. The flag carrier's bullish performance was buoyed by its positive business results in the first quarter.

Specifically, it reported net revenue of nearly VNĐ23.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, up 102 per cent year-on-year. This is also the best result since 2020.

After reducing expenses, Vietnam Airlines' profit before tax reached VNĐ19 billion. While it still lost VNĐ104 billion during the period, it is the most optimistic since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) finished the day higher at 208.15 points, up 0.67 points, or 0.32 per cent.

During the trade, more than 87.6 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth nearly VNĐ1.3 trillion.

Foreign investors, however, were net sellers on the market. Of which, they net sold a value of VNĐ325.25 billion on HoSE while net bought VNĐ12.39 billion on HNX. — VNS