Clients at a transaction office of BIDV. The lender's shares led the market's downturn on Thursday, down over 0.9 per cent. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — Benchmark indices reversed the bullish course to finish lower on Thursday, snapping two-day rallies as the VN-Index struggled to keep at the 1,260 point-level.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index declined by 1.53 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 1,259.75 points. The market's benchmark breached the 1,260 points on Wednesday on improving liquidity.

The breadth of the southern market was neutral as 148 stocks decreased while 147 inched higher. Liquidity also fell from the previous session, with the trading value down 11.5 per cent to VNĐ12.48 trillion (nearly US$492 million).

The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in term of capitalisation on the HoSE, also ticked down. It dipped 2.91 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 1,326.65 points. In the VN30 basket, 20 ticker symbols declined, five increased and five ended flat.

Banking and manufacturing stock groups led the market's downturn, with BIDV being the biggest loser. Shares of the lender fell 0.94 per cent to VNĐ47,600 per share, contributing 0.62 points to the VN-Index's loss.

It was followed by Vietinbank, down 0.84 per cent. Other banking stocks posted significant losses were VPBank (VPB), down 0.76 per cent, Eximbank (EIB), down 1.29 per cent, HDBank (HDB) down 0.57 per cent and TPBank (TPB) which dropped 0.88 per cent.

Also weighing on the bearish trend, pillars like Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Masan Group (MSN) also face strong sell-offs, down 1.19 per cent and 1.21 per cent.

However, the index pared losses thanks to gains of some big names, which led by Vietcombank (VCB) with an increase of 0.32 per cent in market capitalisation.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also closed lower on Thursday, down 0.27 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 227.49 points.

During the session, investors poured over VNĐ723 billion into the northern market, equivalent to a trading volume of 41.1 million shares.

Meanwhile, foreign capital kept flowing out of the domestic market as foreign investors net sold a total of more than VNĐ416 billion on both main exchanges. — VNS