A view of Vinpearl Resort Nha Trang. Shares of Vinpearl soared nearly 3.5 per cent on Friday, cushioning the market's bearish sentiment. — Photo courtesy of the company

HÀ NỘI — The stock market closed relatively unchanged on Friday, with the VN-Index on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE) decreasing by just 1.06 points, or 0.06 per cent, to settle at 1,656.24.

In contrast, the VN30-Index managed to gain 0.13 per cent to 1,899.89 points, highlighting a positive balance among blue-chip stocks.

Despite these seemingly stable index movements, the overall performance of individual stocks was weaker than indicated.

The HoSE market breadth leaned heavily negative, with only 111 stocks rising against 204 that declined. Even within the VN30, which showed a modest increase on the index, only 9 stocks advanced while 17 fell.

The level of investor losses reflected the underlying market sentiment. Within the 204 declining stocks, 90 dropped by more than 1 per cent, accounting for 37.1 per cent of the total trading value on HoSE. This suggests that the adjustments observed in recent sessions persisted today.

The trading day opened on a positive note, buoyed by momentum from the previous session's recovery. However, the VN-Index quickly fell below its reference point as selling pressure emerged.

Liquidity on the southern bourse saw a slight improvement from the previous trade, up VNĐ400 billion (US$15.2 million) to nearly VNĐ20.1 trillion.

The securities sector posted the lowest performance today, with VIX Securities (VIX) suffering a significant drop of 5.1 per cent, contributing 0.41 points to the VN-Index's decline.

Other notable losers included SSI Securities (SSI), Vietcap (VCI), Saigon - Hanoi Securities (SHS), VNDirect Securities (VND) and MB Securities (MBS), which all fell by 1-2 per cent.

The banking sector showed mixed results, but red dominated the landscape. HDBank (HDB) dropped 1.9 per cent and LPBank (LPB) fell 1.5 per cent, while other stocks like Techcombank (TCB), Vietcombank (VCB), Eximbank (EIB), Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) and MBBank (MBB) adjusted by less than 1 per cent compared to their reference prices.

On a positive note, realty stocks performed well, with all four major representatives of the Ving ecosystem cushioning the VN-Index.

Together, they added a total of 3 points to the index, with Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vincom Retail (VRE) collectively increasing by 3.47 per cent. Vinpearl (VPL) also made a notable contribution, adding 1.017 points to the index, making it the third-largest supporter during the session.

Following a net buying activity the previous day, foreign investors returned to net selling, offloading nearly VNĐ588 billion worth of shares on HoSE. — BIZHUB/VNS