Customers and Vietcombank employees wearing masks during transactions. The bank shares posted the biggest losses in market capitalisation yesterday. Photo portal.vietcombank.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Shares settled lower on Wednesday as selling force overweighed bullish sentiment gathering in the previous session. Foreign investors also net sold a great value of shares.

On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the market benchmark VN-Index fell 0.2 per cent to close on Wednesday at 1,270.79 points. 

The index reclaimed nearly 30 points in Tuesday's trade as investors' risk appetite returned. The trend continued in Wednesday's morning trade, then reversed course in the afternoon. 

The market’s breadth was still positive with 171 stocks declining, while 185 stocks climbed. Meanwhile, the liquidity was weaker as VNĐ16 trillion (over US$694 million) was poured into the market, worth a trading volume of nearly 452 million shares.

The index’s reversal was mainly due to losses in many large-cap stocks, mostly in banking, utilities and material sectors. The VN30-Index, which tracks 30 biggest stocks in HoSE, also dropped 0.32 per cent to 1,406.54 points. 

Twenty-one of 30 biggest stocks in the VN30 basket plunged while nine rose.

Bank stocks led the downward trend on Wednesday, followed by utilities and material stocks. Of which Vietcombank (VCB) lost the most in market capitalisation, down 1.2 per cent. 

PetroVietnam Gas JSC (PVGas, GAS), Hoà Phát Group (HPG), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR) and Vietinbank (CTG) also posted losses of more than 1 per cent.

The fall was capped by gains in some pillar stocks, especially in real estate sectors. Accordingly, three out of five most influential stocks were in this sector, with Vinhomes being the biggest gainer yesterday, up 1.31 per cent. It was followed by Vingroup JSC (VIC), Techcombank (TCB) and Vincom Retail JSC (VRE) with all rising in a range of 0.97 - 1.62 per cent. 

Other stocks supporting the market were Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (SAB), Viet Nam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex, PLX) and Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also declined by 0.1 per cent to 300.8 points. 

During the session, over 62.4 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth more than VNĐ1.4 trillion.

In a daily report to customers, analysts from Saigon-Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS) recommended investors take the wait-and-see approach towards market movements.

On the other hand, foreign investors fled from the market again as they net sold a value of nearly VNĐ1.39 trillion on HoSE. Meanwhile they net bought a value of VNĐ9.66 billion on HNX. VNS