Shares sank for a third day on the nation’s two exchanges yesterday as investors remained wary of the market outlook. — Photo vfpress.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares sank for a third day on the nation’s two exchanges yesterday as investors remained wary of the market outlook.

The VN-Index, the measure of 314 stocks on the HCM Stock Exchange, was down 0.13 per cent to end at 666.7 points. The index had lost 1.4 per cent in the last two trading sessions.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index tracking 379 stocks dropped 0.24 per cent to 80.5 points. It had fallen two per cent in the previous two sessions.

Several large-cap stocks recovered yesterday, including the top 30 biggest shares by market capitalization, like PV Gas (GAS), lender BIDV (BID), steelmakers Hòa Phát Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG), software firm FPT Corp (FPT) and Kinh Bắc City Development (KBC).

At the other end of the spectrum, many stocks saw their value drain. These included dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM), Military Bank (MBB), private equity firm Masan Group (MSN), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), HCM Securities Corp (HCM) and PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Petrochemicals Corp (DPM).

Overall market conditions improved over Thursday, with the number of gaining shares slightly lower than the losing shares by 203-228. Another 262 shares closed unchanged.

“The market will enter a downward trend and the risk can increase again, and the trading psychology get less exciting,” Trần Thăng Long, head of research at BIDV Securities Co wrote in a note.

The benchmark VN-Index retreated below the support level of 670 points on Thursday, signaling the market had likely lost the medium-term uptrend support and was approaching the lower support level of 660 points, Long said.

Global oil continued to decline as the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil dipped 1.5 per cent on Thursday to the lowest level since September 23 at US$44.66 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

The Brent crude also dropped 1.1 per cent to $46.35 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in London.

Liquidity was drained with just 119 million shares worth nearly VNĐ1.8 trillion ($81.5 million) traded in the two markets, down 29.7 per cent in volume and 33.3 per cent in value compared with Thursday’s levels.

Foreign traders extended their net buying session to a second day on the HCM Stock Exchange with a value of VNĐ33.6 billion, but they remained net sellers on the Hà Nội bourse, responsible for a net sell value of VNĐ1.3 billion, lifting total net sell value to nearly VNĐ21 billion over the last three days. — VNS