A BIDV employee talks to a client. Shares of the lender plunged nearly 2.4 per cent on Monday, leading the market's downtrend. — Photo bidv.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese stock market retreated on Monday as selling pressure weighed on sentiment, whilst foreign investors continued to net sell on the southern bourse.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) tumbled 18.27 points, or 1.72 per cent, to 1,042.35 points. The index closed last week with a slight recovery of 0.5 per cent. However, for the week, it lost nearly 4.3 per cent.

The benchmark had erased more than 200 points from its peak of 1,245 points.

The breadth of the market fell into negative territory, with decliners surpassing gainers at 257 to 66. Liquidity also decreased, as the matching value on HoSE was just VNĐ8.8 trillion.

This low liquidity partly reflected the cautious sentiment of investors.

The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index dipped 19.94 points, or 1.87 per cent, to close the trading session at 1,047.63 points. Up to 25 stocks in the VN30 basket declined, whilst four ticked up and one ended flat.

Banking stocks dominated the bearish trend as three out of the top five decliners were in this group. Specifically, BIDV (BID) posted the biggest loss of 2.4 per cent. It was followed by Techcombank (TCB) and Sacombank (STB), down 4.91 per cent and 5.92 per cent, respectively.

Other stocks in the top five influencing the market's trend were Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) down 6.74 per cent, and Sabeco (SAB) declined 3.65 per cent.

Securities stocks also witnessed a strong correction with SSI Securities Corporation (SSI), VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), VIX Securities JSC (VIX), and Hồ Chí Minh Securities Corporation (HCM) all losing at least 5.5 per cent, with VIX even registering the largest daily fall of 7 per cent.

Similarly, the HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) reversed the previous week's course to trade lower on Monday. It dropped 6.7 points, or 3.07 per cent, to 211.34 points.

During the session, more than 80.4 million shares were traded on HNX, worth nearly VNĐ1.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, foreign investors were net sellers on the market after net withdrawing a value of around VNĐ76 billion from the two main exchanges. Specifically, they net sold VNĐ88.26 billion on HoSE, but net bought VNĐ12.28 billion on the northern bourse. — VNS