Eximbank shares fell 6.9 per cent on Thursday, the worst among 30 large-cap stocks in the VN30 basket on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE). — Photo vietnamfinance.vn

HÀ NỘI — The benchmark VN-Index suffered its biggest drop in almost four months as a cautious stance worsened amid a lack of good news, triggering massive selling in the last minutes of the day.

The VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange fell 1.27 per cent to close Thursday at 987.89 points, the biggest daily loss since August 5 when it fell 1.81 per cent.

It dropped 0.77 per cent on Wednesday.

The index was just below Wednesday's close of 1,000.56 points most of the day until a massive sell-off in last minutes of the day pushed it down further.

Trading liquidity increased sharply with more than 215 million shares exchanged, worth VNĐ5.44 trillion.

The figure included more than 171.7 million shares that were traded in matching orders, worth VNĐ4.1 trillion.

Market sentiment worsened after the latest developments of the US-China trade war indicated the two sides would not sign a deal soon, VNDirect Securities Corp said in its daily report.

Investors tried to cut losses and escape from assets at any prices, VNDirect said.

“When they see buyers are inactive and they are in unprofitable position, they tend to offer stocks for sale at much lower prices.”

Thursday was the date of maturity for the futures VN30F1911. It finished Thursday at 899 points, down 22 points from the previous day.

Stop-loss trading and opening new buy positions pushed trading volume of the derivatives market to more than 77,000 contracts.

Speculative money is flowing to the derivatives market from the common stock market as investors have better opportunities to make profits here on the volatility of the futures, VNDirect added.

The market is getting riskier for investors with a short-term taste, the company said.

Large-cap stocks were hit by selling pressure. The blue-chip VN30-Index plunged 2.05 per cent to end at 898.23 points.

Among the worst decliners in the VN30 basket were Eximbank (EIB), VPBank (VPB), Techcombank (TCB), retailer Mobile World (MWG) and construction firm Coteccons (CTD).

Eximbank's shares fared the worst, falling 6.9 per cent.

Investors began seeking opportunities in small-cap companies, boosting the small-cap VNSML-Index up 0.23 per cent to 788.31 points.

The downtrend may be temporary, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Co (SHS) said.

The futures VN30F1912, which matures on December 19, closed Thursday at 914 points – 16 points higher than the close of the VN30-Index.

“That difference indicates there is a chance for the market to bounce back in the upcoming day,” SHS said.

The VN-Index may recover on Friday and head to the resistance zone of 995-1,000 points, the company forecast.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched down 0.16 per cent to finish at 104.74 points.

The northern market index lost 0.55 per cent on Wednesday. – VNS