At a latex processing plant of Vietnam Rubber Group. Shares of the rubber producer dipped nearly 2.3 per cent on Thursday, leading the market downturn. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Benchmark indices decreased on Thursday as investor sentiment stayed low, resulting in declining liquidity.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index finished at 1,223.56 points, down 6.8 points, or 0.55 per cent.

The market’s breadth was negative, as the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers by 220 to 87. Liquidity extended its falling streak, down 11.2 per cent from the previous session to VNĐ11.5 trillion (US$461 million).

The blue-chip stock group stayed steady during the last minutes of the last trading day of derivative contracts, yet notable pressure has mounted on small and mid-cap stocks.

The VN30-Index, which tracked the 30 biggest stocks in term of market capitalisation on the HoSE, also dropped 4.06 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,265.32 points.

In the VN30 basket, 22 stocks inched lower, while five ticked down and three ended flat.

Ticker symbols decreasing by over one per cent in the VN30 basket are not the pillars. Within the top ten market capitalisations experiencing significant declines, PV Gas (GAS) and Hoà Phát Group (HPG) only saw a loss of 0.98 per cent.

Data compiled by a financial website, vietstock.vn, showed that Vietnam Rubber Goups (GVR) posted the biggest loss of 2.25 per cent, erasing over 0.7 points from the benchmark index.

It was followed by BIDV (BID), Vietcombank (VCB) and Masan Group (MSN), down 0.85 per cent, 0.45 per cent and 1.96 per cent, respectively.

Losses were capped by gains in some stocks, led by Vinhomes (VHM), shares of the property developer rose 1.75 per cent on Thursday to close at VNĐ37,850 a share.

Some banking stocks also performed well, such as Fortune Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LPB) increased 2.08 per cent, HDBank (HDB) rose 0.97 per cent, Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) was up 0.87 per cent and Vietinbank (CTG) increased 0.16 per cent.

The HNX-Index, the benchmark index of the northern bourse Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), also closed lower at 228.54 points, down 1.14 points, or 0.5 per cent.

During the session, over VNĐ40.2 million shares were traded on HNX, worth VNĐ814 billion.

On the other hand, foreign capital continued to flow into the domestic market as foreign investors net-bought on both main exchanges. Specifically they net bought nearly VNĐ120 billion on the HoSE and VNĐ18.58 billion on the HNX. — VNS