HÀ NỘI — Shares decreased significantly on Monday as selling pressure hit petroleum and real estate stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell below the 1,000-point threshold, dropping 1.22 per cent to close Monday at 996.12 points.

The benchmark index dropped 1.49 per cent to close Friday at 1,008.39 points. The southern market index had gained a total of 1 per cent in the previous three straight sessions, but Friday’s decline erased its entire growth last week.

The VN-Index ended last week 0.86 per cent lower than the previous one.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange lost 0.25 per cent to end at 114.38 points. The northern market index dropped a total of 1.38 per cent last week.

More than 259.2 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ5.83 trillion (US$249 million).

Tracking the southern bourse’s largest stocks by capitalisation and liquidity, the VN30-Index lost nearly 1.07 per cent to finish at 970.28 points.

On a sector basis, 17 of the 20 sectors saw share prices drop, including real estate, securities, technology, banking, petroleum, food and beverages and seafood processing.

The 17 industry indices were down between 0.11 and 2.29 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Oil-gas stocks slumped by 3.01 per cent after a streak of gains, dragged down by PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD) (down 4.4 per cent), PetroVietnam Power Corporation (POW) (falling 4.3 per cent), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (slipping 3.2 per cent) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (declining 2.9 per cent).

Oil dropped for a third day in a row on information about Iranian crude. Brent and WTI crude prices respectively fell by 3.36 per cent and 3.5 per cent to $83.11 per barrel and $73.52 per barrel. Oil prices fell last weekend after the US said the Trump administration is considering waivers for sanctions against Iran’s oil exports next month.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), with this steady drop of oil prices, domestic oil-gas stocks were heavily sold and sank today after a long rally.

Real estate stocks slid 1.57 per cent as Vincom Retail (VRE), Vinhomes (VHM) and Vingroup (VIC) respectively dropped by 4.1 per cent, 2.1 per cent, and 1.9 per cent. Securities stocks and bank stocks subsequently fell 1.01 per cent and 0.53 per cent.

BVSC said the VN-Index dropped to the 996-1,003 support zone. The index is likely to rebound in the next session.

“However, this is only a technical recovery and the market may continue to drop to a strong resistance zone at 980 before reverting to gains,” the company said in its daily report.

The UPCOM Index (UPCoM) declined 0.67 per cent to finish at 53.67 points. It decreased 0.94 per cent to finish at 54.04 points in the previous session. — VNS