PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) engineers at a facility. GAS was down 3.7 per cent on Tuesday. Photo pvgas.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Share slid on Wednesday as the spread of COVID-19 virus has dampened investor sentiment, triggering worries about a possible pandemic.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange lost 1.51 per cent to end the session at 895.97 points.

The VN-Index had gained 0.70 per cent to close Tuesday at 909.67 points.

Nearly 142.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ3 trillion (US$129.4 million).

Market breadth was negative with 247 stocks declining and 109 gaining.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index decreased by 0.93 per cent to close at 841.68 points.

Twenty-two of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined while six gained ground.

On a sector basis, wholesale, retail, insurance, real estate, securities, oil and gas, banking, agriculture, food and beverage, construction and construction materials were the market’s losers on Wednesday.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co (BVSC), the COVID-19 epidemic still shows signs of rapid spread in South Korea, which can indirectly affect Việt Nam’s economic growth.

China’s National Health Commission reported another 406 new infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China to 78,064. Its death toll rose by 52 to 2,715. As of Wednesday South Korea reported 284 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 1,261 and becomes the worst-affected country outside China.

Selling force appeared right at the beginning of the trading session and maintained until the end of the session. Pillar stocks that were hit strongly included Vinhomes (VHM) (-2.6 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (-3.7 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (-3.7 per cent), Vinamilk (VNM) (-2.8 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (-1.4 per cent), Vingroup (VIC) (-1 per cent), Vietinbank (CTG) (-1.1 per cent), Vietjet (VJC) (-1.6 per cent), Sabeco (SAB) (-0.6 per cent) and Vincom Retail (VRE) (- 0.7 per cent).

“VN-Index is touching support zone 891-895 points. The index needs to make a recovery and a breakout over 910 points in order to recover next week. However, if continually breaking down this support zone, the index will face the risk of a downtrend toward the strong medium-term support zone 860-870 points for the meantime,” BVSC said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slid 0.05 per cent to close Wednesday at 106.61 points.

The northern market index had gained 2.39 per cent to end Tuesday at 106.66 points.

Nearly 69.7 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ763 billion. — VNS