Staff at a branch of Vietcombank (VCB) in Hà Nội. VCB lost 0.96 per cent on Friday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The slump of banking stocks caused the VN-Index to drop below the reference level in the at-the-close (ATC) session on Friday.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.16 per cent to close at 965.14  points.

More than 174.1 shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ3 trillion (US$129 million).

The index had risen 0.59 per cent to close Thursday at 965.14 points.

The large-cap VN30-Index was down 0.41 per cent at 883.28 points with 17 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity falling.

On a sector basis, 14 among the total 25 sectors moved down, including wholesale, insurance, real estate, securities, information and technology, retail, healthcare, banking, rubber production, plastics and chemistry, seafood production and logistics.

On the opposite side, mining, food and beverage, agriculture and construction advanced.

In the morning, oil prices increased sharply as tensions in the Middle East got worse, which supported the rise of the oil sector. PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (PLX), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Co (PVD) and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp (PVS) all increased. This was a supporting factor for VN-Index for most of trading.

In the afternoon, the fall of banking stocks caused the VN-Index to drop at the end of the session. Decliners in the group were Vietcombank (VCB) (-0.96 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID (-0.24 per cent) and Vietinbank (CTG) (-0.22 per cent).

The market sentiment improved as the liquidity increased slightly and foreign investors returned to be net buyers on the HOSE.

Foreign investors net bought VNĐ153.21 billion on HOSE, including Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (VNĐ120.21 billion), Vinamilk (VNM) (VNĐ38.05 billion) and Vincom Retail (VRE) (VNĐ37.29 billion). They net sold on the HNX with a value of VNĐ7.57 billion.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.58 per cent to end at 102.39 points.

More than 22.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ267 billion. — VNS