PV GAS's first and largest LNG terminal system in Việt Nam. Shares of the company plunged more than 3 per cent on Monday, weighed on the market's sentiment. — Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares opened the new week on a negative note, reversing last Friday's course, due to persistent selling pressure. 

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index closed Monday at 1,093.53 points, a decrease of 14.5 points, or 1.31 per cent. The reversal erased most of its recovery in the last trading session and caused the benchmark to dip below the 1,100-point level again. 

The breadth of the market returned to negative territory as the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers. 

Liquidity on the southern bourse also declined over the previous session, with the trading value down 14.5 per cent to over VNĐ12.12 trillion (US$492.6 million). This was equivalent to a trading volume of 563.1 million shares. 

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks on HoSE, also finished lower at 1,106.85 points, down 16.84 points, or 1.5 per cent. Up to 27 stocks slid at the beginning of the week, while only two ticked up and one stayed unchanged. 

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) fell 2.19 points, or 0.96 per cent, to 226.26 points. Investors poured nearly VNĐ 1.4 trillion into the northern market, equal to 69.22 million shares.

Leading the downtrend today were stocks of oil and gas, manufacturing and banking sectors. Particularly, PV Gas (GAS) was the biggest loser with a fall of 3.13 per cent. 

It was followed by Vinamilk (VNM), Masan Group (MSN), VPBank (VPB), and Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR). All the stocks lost in a range of 2.55-4.35 per cent. 

Many securities stocks also witnessed strong sell-off, with SSI Securities Corporation (SSI),  VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), VIX Securities JSC (VIX), Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), and MB Securities JSC falling at least 2.2 per cent. 

Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to pump capital into the market after net buying a total of more than VNĐ56.5 billion on the two main exchanges. Of which, they net bought VNĐ57.11 billion on HoSE, but net sold a small amout of VNĐ561.76 million on HNX. — VNS