HÀ NỘI — Local markets were fragile on Thursday after gains in a day earlier, with both indices falling on weakening investor sentiment.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.77 per cent to close Thursday’s session at 767.59 points. The southern market index increased 0.33 per cent in the previous session.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also edged down 1.23 per cent to end at 100.49 points. The northern market index rose 0.44 per cent on Wednesday.

Large-cap stocks continued to impact the market heavily as 24 of the 30 largest shares by market value and liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange declined and only six advanced.

Shares of most sectors were under high selling pressure, including banks, steelmakers, energy, construction and real estate companies.

Except Việt Nam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPB) which closed flat on its first trading session on Thursday, all other six listed lenders on HCM City’s exchange dropped between 0.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent.

VPBank on Thursday began to trade its entire 1.33 billion shares on the HCM Stock Exchange at a reference price of VNĐ39,000 (US$1.72) a share. VPB dropped to VNĐ33,000 in the morning session but recovered and settled at VNĐ39,000 by the end of its first trading day, the most expensive bank share on the market.

More than 58 million VPB shares were exchanged on Thursday, a record for a debut, and this amount accounted for 24.4 per cent of total trading volume on HCM City’s exchange on the same day.

On the Hà Nội bourse, only Nam Việt Bank (NVB) improved while Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank (SHB) dropped by more than 1 per cent each.

Other losers included PV Gas (GAS), Hoa Sen Group (HSG), Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), VinGroup (VIC), FPT Corp (FPT) and Mobile World Group (MWG).

On the bright side, companies in the food-beverage sector cushioned the market. The two biggest listed stocks in this sector – Vinamilk (VNM) and brewery Sabeco (SAB) – advanced 0.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively.

However, despite the rally of these two stocks, selling pressure in the entire market increased sharply in the second half of the afternoon session, further pushing down the indices in the final trading minutes.

“This movement indicated negative sentiment of investors about the market’s short-term outlook,” market analyst Trần Đức Anh at Bảo Việt Securities Co wrote in a note on Thursday.

According to Vietnam Investment Securities Co, the market depended heavily on some large-cap stocks while liquidity was unstable.

Liquidity soared on Thursday with nearly 295 million shares worth a combined VNĐ6.3 trillion ($277.5 million) traded in the two markets, up 39.2 per cent in volume and 73 per cent in value compared to the previous session. — VNS