Cows are fed at a Vinamilk (VNM) farm. VNM declined 1.6 per cent on Wednesday. Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — The VN-Index slumped on Wednesday as supply increased in the afternoon trading session, causing blue-chips to lose ground.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) lost 0.55 per cent to close at 1,012.77 points.

Nearly 287 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ6.75 trillion (US$288.5 million).

On the southern stock market, declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 202 to 105, while 83 stocks ended flat.

The index had risen 0.16 per cent to close Tuesday at 1,018.33 points.

Many large-cap stocks suffered from the sell-offs, including Vietcombank (VCB) (-1.3 per cent), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (-1.6 per cent), real estate developer Vinhomes (VHM) (-0.7 per cent), brewery Sabeco (SAB) (-1.2 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (-1.6 per cent), Vingroup (VIC) (-0.3 per cent), steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (-1.5 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (-0.9 per cent) and Vietinbank (CTG) (-0.7 per cent).

Among the few pillars to make gains were Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) (+1.9 per cent), and Hà Nội Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (BHN) (+3.8 per cent).

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity, lost 0.77 per cent to close at 932.60 points.

In the VN30 basket, 19 of the 30 largest stocks dropped off.

On a sector basis, logistics, retail, healthcare, agriculture, information and technology, food and beverage, insurance, construction, banks, property developers and petroleum firms were among the worst-performing industries.

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), in addition to conflicting signals about the trade agreement President Trump mentioned in a speech on Tuesday, profit-taking pressure in volatile areas also showed the index would need more time to settle.

Investors could open part of their positions in stocks that were fundamentally favourable, BSC said.

Foreign investors net sold VNĐ737.90 billion on HOSE, including in Vietinbank (CTG) (VNĐ625.79 billion), Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ139.11 billion) and Vingroup (VIC) (VNĐ70.81 billion). They were net buyers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ31.61 billion.

According to Saigon-Hanoi Securities Co (SHS), the market may continue to witness negative movements until demand returns. On Thursday, the VN-Index may continue correcting and hovering around the support zone of 1,000-1,005 points.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index gained 0.22 per cent to end at 107.20  points on Wednesday.

More than 29.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ339 billion.

On the HNX, Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) (+1.2 per cent), Tiền Phong Plastic JSC (NTP) (+1.6 per cent), Vietnam Trading and Construction Development Investment Joint Stock Company (MBG) (+5.7 per cent) helped the index rally. — VNS