A customer at the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID). BID lost 1.2 per cent yesterday. — Photo courtesy of BID

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese stocks slipped on Tuesday, with banking shares extending falls and securities stocks tumbling, pressuring the indices amid a strong selling force.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index dropped 0.23 per cent to close at 1,234.05 points.

Market breadth was neutral with 221 decliners and 232 gainers.

Some 912 million shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ19 trillion (US$801 million).

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, lost 0.18 per cent to reach 1,241.24 points. In the basket, 11 stocks climbed, two stayed flat and 17 slid.

Banking stocks lost ground with most of the stocks in the basket declining, including Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), National Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NVB), Vietcombank (VCB), Military Bank (MBB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), and Sacombank (STB).

However, some banks still managed to gain and supported the indices such as Vietinbank (CTG), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB), VPBank (VPB), and Techcombank (TCB).

The securities group was also hit strongly with two giants SSI Securities Inc (SSI) and VNDirect Securities Co (VND) dropping 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively.

“Supply is still putting pressure on profit-taking, but cash flow is still trying to support the market. With this move, it is expected that the market will continue to recover but the movement will be slow. In general, the current recovery span is exploratory and testing supply and demand at the resistance zone of 1,240 – 1,245 points,” said Việt Dragon Securities Co.

“Therefore, investors need to observe and evaluate the support efforts of cash flow. Temporarily they can hold stocks that are showing good signals from cash flow. However, it is necessary to consider the possibility of recovery to take profits or reduce the proportion in stocks that are experiencing weakness to minimise risks for the portfolio,” it said.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) gained 0.40 per cent to close Tuesday at 251.45 points.

Nearly 119.7 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ2.1 trillion. — VNS