Customers make transactions at a branch of Techcombank in Hà Nội. Shares of Techcombank (TCB) declined 1.8 per cent on Tuesday. Photo the courtesy of Techcombank

HÀ NỘI — The VN-Index dropped on Tuesday due to the strong selling pressure hitting large-caps during the trading session.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) lost 0.60 per cent to end the day at 960.30 points.

Nearly 243 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ5 trillion (US$214 million).

The index had gained 0.26 per cent on Monday.

Market breadth was negative with 204 shares gaining and 130 declining.

The market rallied at the beginning of the session but selling pressure increased sharply after that, driving the market indices down to below the reference levels.

Fortunately, during the ATC session, bottom fishing demand appeared and helped narrow the decline of the indices.

Pillar stocks under selling pressure included Masan Group (MSN) (-6.4 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (- 1.9 per cent), brewery Sabeco (SAB) (-1.1 per cent), Vinhomes (VHM) (-0.5 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (-1.8 per cent), the Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (-1.2 per cent), Vincom Retail (VRE) (-0.9 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) (-0.3 per cent), Vietinbank (CTG) (- 0.5 per cent) and Vietjet (VJC) (-0.5 per cent).

In the opposite direction, some managed to increase thanks to the bottom fishing, such as Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH) (+ 3 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (+ 0.2 per cent), Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (+ 0.8 per cent), Vinamilk (VNM) (+ 0.1 per cent), FPT Corporation (FPT) (+ 0.4 per cent) and Phú Nhuận Jewellery (PNJ) (+0.7 per cent).

The large-cap VN30-Index decreased by 0.77 per cent to stand at 873.16 points.

On a sector basis, only eight of the 25 sectors saw share prices rising, including insurance, information and technology, retail and rubber production.

On the opposite side, 17 sectors saw share prices drop, including oil and gas, banking, food and beverage, wholesale, agriculture, seafood production, healthcare, real estate, banking, plastic and chemicals.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index was down 0.31 per cent to end Tuesday at 102.04 points.

More than 30.8 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ388.6 billion.

Foreign investors net sold VĐ146.19 billion on the HOSE, including Masan Group (MSN) (VNĐ68.8 billion), Vinhomes (VHM) (VNĐ58.6 billion) and FLC Faros Construction Corporation (ROS) (VNĐ40.0 billion). They were net sellers on the HNX with a value of VNĐ99.85 billion.

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), with no sudden changes in macro information, VN-Index is likely to trade in the low range of 950-960 points this week. — VNS