Vietnam's benchmark VN-Index lost 13.43 points, or 1.19%, to 1,114.20 on Wednesday, the lowest since December 1, mainly due to the strong net selling of foreign investors.
Foreign investors were net sellers on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) for the 11th consecutive session to the tune of up to VND900 billion ($37 million), the highest in a week.
They mainly net sold banking and steel stocks, notably STB of Sacombank with 3 million shares; VPB of VPBank, SHB of Saigon-Hanoi Bank and HPG of steel giant Hoa Phat, each with over 2 million shares.
The trading value on the HoSE, represented by the VN-Index, increased by 32% to VND18.45 trillion ($760 million). The southern bourse saw up to 448 tickers losing and only 89 gaining.
The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of 30 largest cap stocks, plunged 14.38 points to 1,106.83, with 27 tickers falling.
Among the blue chips, VRE of Vincom Retail declined 2.7%, followed by HPG of Hoa Phat Group and PLX of fuel distributor Petrolimex, both down 2.1%.
Three blue chips slightly increased, including BVH of insurance company Bao Viet Holdings up 1%, VJC of budget airline Vietjet 0.48%, and HDB of HDBank 0.3%.
HAG of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group was the biggest contributor to the VN-Index when closing up 3.4%. On the contrary, HPG was the most negative influencer, losing 2%.
The top five stocks in terms of trading value on the HoSE remained large caps, including HPG with over VND920 billion ($37.89 million); SSI of Saigon Securities with VND700 billion ($28.83 million); STB, DIG of real estate developer DIG Corp. and EIB of Eximbank each with VND500 billion ($20.6 million).
The red covered almost all stock groups, especially banking, real estate, securities, manufacturing and energy.
Aviation was the only group gaining this session as VJC of Vietjet and HVN of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines expanded 0.48% and 0.46%, respectively.
The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, fell 1.42% to 228.42, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market went down 0.3% to 85.09 .