Customers at a Vietcombank transaction office in Hà Nội. The lender's shares dipped over 2 per cent on Thursday, erasing 2.45 points from the VN-Index. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The stock market experienced a choppy session on Thursday, as weakening money flows failed to stop selling pressure from spreading towards close.

By the end of the session on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index closed at 1,863.67 points, down 10.76 points, or 0.57 per cent, from the previous session. Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) stayed positive, rising 3.33 points, or 1.18 per cent, to 285.56 points.

Towards the end of the trading day, bearish pressure widened across the tape. The market reportedly saw close to 420 declining stocks, while the number of advancers stood at roughly 250.

Total transaction value across the market was reported at around VNĐ21 trillion (US$798 million), down roughly 15 per cent from the previous session. However, the HNX market was singled out as a bright spot, as liquidity there increased by more than 30 per cent. 

The 30 biggest stocks tracker, the VN30-Index, also finished lower. The index fell 22.64 points, or 1.12 per cent, to 1,999.82 points. Up to 22 ticker symbols performed poorly, while six went up and two stayed flat. 

The weakness was concentrated across most of the market's key sectors. 

Financials, particularly banking, real estate, industrials and materials, all traded in negative territory, creating headwinds for the VN-Index.

The banking group was the main drag behind the benchmark's decline. Nearly all of the stocks in the top 10 names contributing most negatively to the VN-Index were bank-related, including Vietcombank (VCB), Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB), BIDV (BID), HDBank (HDB), Vietinbank (CTG), MBBank (MBB), LPBank (LPB) and Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB).

On the other side, one notable exception was Vinhomes (VHM), which unexpectedly jumped to the ceiling limit toward the end of the session, according to reports. The move was cited as contributing around 10 points of gains to the VN-Index.

However, the pull from this large-cap name was not enough to offset broad-based selling pressure. As a result, the index failed to return to the reference level.

Foreign investors also remained a consistent net seller on HoSE for the sixth consecutive session, offloading over VNĐ586 billion.

The top three stocks hit hardest by foreign selling were HDBank (HDB), FPT Corporation (FPT) and Sahabank (SHB). — BIZHUB/VNS