HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s benchmark VN Index fell for a fifth straight session on Wednesday, dragged down by oil stocks amid low liquidity and investors’ worries over the market’s short term prospects.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange declined 1.80 per cent to 922.73 points by the end of the afternoon’s trade, making a five-day fall of 5 per cent.

It lost 1.45 per cent to close at 939.68 points on Tuesday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index retreated in the afternoon on heavy selling pressure, losing 1.27 per cent to end at 103.73 points.

The index dropped 2.3 per cent to end at 105.07 points on Tuesday.

Liquidity was modest with just 188 million shares worth a combined VNĐ4 trillion (US$173 million) traded on the two markets.

Declining stocks dominated the market with 288 stocks seeing prices fall, while 165 others ended on a positive note.

The market faced selling pressure during the trading session with increasing sales in the last minutes. Therefore, supply might keep rising in the next session, said Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC).

Investors were pessimistic and worried about a sharp decline in the short term, BVSC said.

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Techcombank (TCB) suffered the biggest losses and slid by 4.6 points, 2.5 points and 1.4 points, respectively.

Conversely, real estate developer Novaland (NVL), Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) and Vietnam Commercial Joint Stock Export Import Bank (EIB) were the biggest gainers at 0.57, 0.22 and 0.16 points.

Most stock groups lost Wednesday. Oil-gas stocks experienced the sharpest decline of 6.1 per cent, dragged by PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services Corporation (PVD), and GAS, especially PVD and GAS which hit their lowest levels.

Bank stocks fell across the board, resulting in a drop of 2.56 per cent of the overall banking index. The biggest losers of banking sector included BID (-6.6 per cent), TCB (-4.7 per cent) and VPBank (VPB) (-2.9 per cent).

Securities slipped 2.42 per cent, hamstrung by Hồ Chí Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM), Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS) and Việt Capital Securities Joint Stock Company (VCI).

On the other side of the coin, insurance stocks rallied 0.78 per cent on the rise of 1.1 per cent of Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH).

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) edged down 1.04 per cent to finish at 51.51 points. The unlisted market index edged down 0.71 per cent to finish at 52.05 in the previous session. — VNS