Vietcombank's employee talked to a client at its office in Hà Nội. The bank's shares plunged nearly 1.9 per cent on Thursday, leading the downtrend. — VNA/VNS Photo Trần Việt

HÀ NỘI — Indices extended losses on Thursday, weighed by persistent sell-off pressure and investors' cautious sentiment while foreign investors also net sold on the two main exchanges.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell sharply by 13.38 points, or 1.08 per cent, to 1,220.61 points. This was the biggest intraday loss of the index since March 20, when it posted a decline of more than 22 points.

The breadth of the market was in negative territory as nearly 249 stocks on HoSE inched down, while 93 tickers went up.

Even though liquidity on the southern market remained above VNĐ20 trillion, it continued to decrease over the previous session. Particularly, the trading value and volume fell 6.9 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively, to VNĐ20.2 trillion (US$852 million) and 1.01 billion shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also dipped 13.64 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 1,226.2 points. Twenty-four stocks of the VN30 basket faced strong sell-off, while only three edged higher and three stayed flat.

Stocks across all sectors fell into a bearish market today, led by the loss of Vietcombank (VCB). VCB shares tumbled by nearly 1.9 per cent, followed by BIDV (BID), Masan Group (MSN), and VietinBank (CTG), down from 2.62 per cent to 5.68 per cent.

The market was also pressured by losses of other large-cap stocks such as Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Becamex (BCM), and Vincom Retail (VRE). The stocks all slid at least 1.6 per cent.

Many securities companies expect that the market is in a correction phase when selling pressure started increasing stronger on Tuesday. Investor sentiment was also more cautious.

The bright spot today was gains in stocks, especially in the real estate industry. Of which, Vingroup (VIC) posted the best performance with a rise of 3.19 per cent. Other stocks like Novaland (NVL) and PV Gas (GAS) were up 3.52 per cent and 0.99 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index dropped 1.97 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 243.91 points. Investors injected more than VNĐ2.3 trillion into the northern bourse, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 150 million shares.

Foreign investors were net sellers on both main exchanges. Of which, they net sold VNĐ359.25 billion in HoSE and VNĐ8.72 billion on HNX. — VNS