A Petrolimex gas station on Lạc Trung Street, Hai Bà Trưng District, Hà Nội. Shares of the largest petrol company dropped 3.8 per cent on Wednesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Trần Việt

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares posted the worst loss in three months on Wednesday on the landing of a new storm in the central region, raising concerns over the economic growth and business performance in the rest of the year.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange plunged 2.69 per cent or 25.42 points to 921.05 points at the end of the day.

It was the index’s worst decline since July 29, when it plummeted 2.77 per cent or 22.52 points.

The benchmark has lost a total of 4.18 per cent in the last three trading days and returned to near its closing level of 918 points made on October 8.

Investors panicked “due to the news about the 9th storm Molave, making the market worry that it will affect the business activities and the stability of the socio-economic condition at the end of the year,” BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its daily report.

The worries “caused sell-off activities to increase and lead to the rapid devaluation of most stocks today,” the company said.

More than 456 million shares were successfully sold on Wednesday, worth VNĐ9 trillion (US$387.4 million).

The southern market saw 365 stocks decline while 66 others increased and 46 stocks ended flat.

The large-cap VN30-Index lost 2.67 per cent to 888.88 points. The VN30 futures due on November 19 fell 2.62 per cent to 895.90 points to indicate negative market outlook among investors.

Among the worst large-cap decliners were HDBank (HDB), Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC), VPBank (VPB), retailer Mobile World Investment (MWG), Techcombank (TCB) and petrol company Petrolimex (PLX).

Those stocks declined by 3.8-6.3 per cent. TCB was the most active stock on the market with more than 32 million shares traded.

The large-scale sell-off also hit the mid-cap and small-cap trackers on HoSE, which dropped 1.76 per cent and 1.85 per cent, respectively.

Retail, banking, securities, property, insurance and materials were the worst-performing sectors on Wednesday, according to vietstock.vn.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dived 2.25 per cent to 134.04 points.

The northern market index has decreased by total 5.40 per cent after the last three trading days.

Nearly 68 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ1.04 trillion. — VNS