Vietcombank (VCB) closed Thursday down nearly 1 per cent at VNĐ85,200 per share. Downward trends appeared in most banking stocks such as VCB, Bank for Investment and Development (BID), techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB) and Military Bank (MBB). — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — The VN-Index retreated Thursday as correcting pressure in some market-leading blue-chips weighed on the index.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.47 per cent to close Thursday at 992.06 points.

Nearly 192 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4 trillion (US$171 million).

The VN-Index inched up 0.14 per cent on Wednesday.

Dragging the market down in Thursday’s morning session were banking, real estate, oil and gas, construction, seafood processing, information and technology, healthcare, insurance wholesale, retail and securities sectors.

The sector indices fell between 0.07 per cent and 1.64 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Those were also the groups that had made strong gains in previous weeks as investors expected they would release good earnings reports for the last two quarters of the year.

Weak trading liquidity indicated investors were cautious during the third-quarter earnings season, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in its Wednesday report.

Other groups such as logistics, food and beverage and construction materials made modest gains.

The three stocks that were strongly sold on Thursday were Vingroup (VIC), Vietcombank (VCB) and Sabeco (SAB).

Downward trend appeared in most of banking stocks such as VCB, Bank for Investment and Development (BID), techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB) and Military Bank (MBB), on Thursday.

Securities group also performed poorly as most of the stocks in the group such as Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), HCM City Securities Corp (HCM), VNDirect Securities Corp (VND) and Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Joint Stock Company SHS all dropped.

Construction materials saw advancement thanks to the growth of Hòa Phát Group (HPG), Vicostone JSC (VCS), Hà Tiên 1 Cement Joint Stock Company (HT1) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.13 per cent to end Thursday at 106.07 points.

More than 18.4 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ261 billion.

The northern market index lost a total of 0.1 per cent in the previous two days.

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ18.31 billion on the HOSE, including Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ44.90 billion), Vietcombank (VCB) (VNĐ9.75 billion) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (VNĐ3.94 billion). They were net buyers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ1.39 billion.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC), the market is forecast to continuously fluctuate with alternative ups and downs in a trading range in the remaining sessions of the week.

VN-Index is expected to fluctuate between 987 and 995 points, BVSC said.

The market will continue to experience a wide divergence among stock sectors, depending on Q3 business results.

“We forecast that the following sectors will achieve positive profit in Q3, including banks, real estate, electricity, natural rubber, and tire rubber. Besides, several stocks in Vn30 such as Vinamilk (VNM), Masan Group (MSN), Vietjet Air (VJC) and Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ) are also expected to achieve positive developments in the short term,” BVSC said. — VNS