A production line of dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM). VNM lost 0.6 per cent yesterday. Photo Vinamilk

HÀ NỘI — Shares ended lower on Wednesday, primarily driven by selling pressure that emerged towards the end of the trading session, particularly affecting various large-cap stock groups.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.38 per cent to close at 1,172.97 points.

Market breadth was negative with 167 gainers and 297 decliners.

Some 733.2 billion shares were traded on the southern exchange, worth VNĐ15.5 trillion (US$630 million).

As the trading session drew to a close on Wednesday, the stock market witnessed a downward trajectory in share prices. This decline was primarily attributed to mounting selling force that exerted significant pressure on a range of large-cap stock groups, according to vietstock.vn.

The final minutes of the trading session proved to be particularly challenging, as investors opted to offload their holdings, leading to a decline in share values across multiple sectors. The selling pressure became increasingly pronounced, notably impacting the overall market sentiment and contributing to the lower closing prices observed on Wednesday.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, dropped 0.37 per cent to reach 1,179.45 points. In the basket, seven stocks climbed, four stayed flat and 19 slid.

Losers in the VN-30 basket included Vinamilk (VNM), Vietjet (VJC), Sabeco (SAB), Masan Group (MSN), Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) and FPT Corporation (FPT).

Banking stocks suffered strong selling force during the trading session. Those slumping included Techcombank (TCB), Vietcombank (VCB), VPBank (VPB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Vietinbank (CTG), HDBank (HDB), Tiên Phong Bank (TPB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID).

Energy stocks were also hit by selling pressure, with losers such as PetroVietnam Drilling Mud Joint Stock Corporation (PVC), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD), PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS) and PV OIL (OIL).

On a sector basis, 23 out of 25 sector indices on the stock market lost ground, including banking, oil and gas, wholesale, construction, rubber production, IT and logistics, agriculture, food and beverage, seafood production, and plastic and chemical production.

The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.32 per cent to close at 228.53 points.

Over 56 million shares were traded on the northern exchange, worth VNĐ993 billion. — VNS