At a Techcombank transaction office. Shares of the lender dipped nearly 2.2 per cent on Wednesday, weighing on the market's sentiment. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI —The stock market ended the final trading session before the April 30–May 1 holiday on a mixed note across exchanges as selling pressure intensified on large-cap stocks on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE), dragging the VN-Index lower while the HNX-Index held in positive territory, supported by selected blue-chip gains.

The VN-Index, representing HoSE, fell 21.74 points or 1.16 per cent to 1,854.1 points, while the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) rose 1.22 points or 0.49 per cent to 250.66 points.

Market breadth across the combined bourse tilted slightly towards advancers with 236 stocks increasing versus 197 declining.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 largest stocks, also finished lower at 2,022.75 points, down 18.65 points or 0.91 per cent.

Within the VN30 basket, gainers still outnumbered decliners with 13 stocks climbing, 11 falling and six closing unchanged against their reference prices.

Liquidity expanded compared with the previous session. On HoSE, trading value reached nearly VNĐ21.1 trillion (US$799.5 million), equivalent to 722.3 million shares traded, while the HNX-Index recorded about 63 million shares traded worth more than VNĐ1.1 trillion.

Trading momentum in the afternoon session weighed on the benchmark. Selling pressure dominated later in the day, leaving the VN-Index in negative territory at the close despite buying attempts that were not strong enough to reverse the intraday trend.

Data compiled by vietstock.vn showed the largest negative impact came from Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), Techcombank (TCB) and VPBank (VPB), together erasing more than 24.4 points from the VN-Index.

On the other hand, index support came from LPBank (LPB), PV Gas (GAS), Vincom Retail (VRE) and Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), helping narrow the decline. These stocks rose in a range of 2.12–4.87 per cent.

The HNX-Index’s positive performance was attributed to leading stocks such as PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), Sunshine Group JSC (KSF), PVI Holdings (PVI) and CEO Group (CEO), which helped support sentiment on the northern bourse.

Foreign investors remained net sellers on HoSE for the second straight session in terms of the day’s flow. Net selling on HoSE exceeded VNĐ1.3 trillion, concentrated in VIC, PC1 Group (PC1), VHM and Vietcombank (VCB).

Also, foreign investors recorded net buying of more than VNĐ74.9 billion on HNX. — BIZHUB/VNS