Buyers at a Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC store in HCM City. The company's shares (HoSE: PNJ) dived 6.9 per cent on Thursday. — Photo pnj.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares tumbled on Thursday as profit taking pressure increased strongly in the afternoon trading session following the market’s recent rally.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.79 per cent to 1,030.91 points.

The index gained as much as 0.48 per cent during the day.

The benchmark gained 0.96 per cent on Wednesday.

Mounting profit-taking pushed local stocks down and resulted in a negative market breadth.

More than 320 stocks on the southern bourse declined while 123 stocks increased.

The large-cap tracker VN30-Index slipped 0.97 per cent to 994.28 points.

The VN30 futures due on December 17 fell 0.59 per cent to 1,002 points on Thursday.

Twenty-two of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity in the VN30 basket declined.

Only eight large-caps rose.

Among the declining large-cap shares were Phú Nhuận Jewellery JSC (PNJ), Thành Thành Công-Biên Hòa Sugar JSC (SBT), steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG), Sacombank (STB), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), and HDBank (HDB).

PNJ dived 6.9 per cent while others declined by 1.8-2.9 per cent.

In addition, mid-cap and small-cap stocks succumbed to the rise of selling pressure.

The two trackers lost 1.26 per cent and 1.05 per cent, respectively.

Insurance, real estate, information and technology, pharmaceutical and healthcare, mining and energy, and materials were among the worst-performing industries on Thursday.

Those sectors’ indices were down between 1.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

“Local stocks started struggling with profit-taking pressure after the market had logged a strong rally in recent weeks,” Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in its daily report.

“Investors are getting more cautious,” the company said. “The VN-Index will continue going down in the next days as investors look to realise their profits.”

More than 626.4 million shares were traded on the HCM City bourse, worth VNĐ13.35 trillion (nearly US$578 million).

The figure included more than 566 million shares being sold immediately, worth VNĐ11.59 trillion.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.35 per cent to 159.30 points.

The northern market index rose as much as 1.48 per cent during the day.

The HNX-Index has risen a total of 7.85 per cent in the last eight trading days.

More than 83 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ1.05 trillion. — VNS