Vietnam stock index plunges 23 points on strong sell-offs

The VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on Tuesday dropped 23.45 points, or 2.15%, to 1,065.84 on strong sell-offs at the end of the session.

The major bourse saw up to 342 losers, including 12 hitting their floor prices, and only 77 gainers. Over 673.2 million shares changed hands for nearly VND12.17 trillion ($515.46 million).

The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of 30 largest cap stocks, plunged 24.87 points, or 2.27%, to 1,069.5. The blue chips had the most negative impact on the market, with 24 tickers losing and five gaining. Among the losers, PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Investment Corp hit its floor price and HPG of steel giant Hoa Phat dropped 6.6%.

In contrast to the previous trading session, the banking group experienced a deep fall, with VCB of Vietcombank down 4.2%, VPB of VPBank 3%, BID of BIDV bank 2.7%, CTG of Vietinbank 2.3%, HDB of HDBank 2.7%, and VIB of Vietnam International Bank 2.5%.

Under strong selling pressures, other major groups like securities, steel, real estate, construction, seafood and garment all closed in red.

On the other side, HVN of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines expanded 4.1% to VND12,650 ($0.54), becoming the main support for the VN-Index. Other gainers included TPB of TPBank, PLX of Petrolimex, GAS of PV Gas, FPT of FPT Corp, and STB of Sacombank.

Foreign investors remained net buyers but their net purchase value plunged to VND40 billion ($1.69 million) on the HoSE from over VND392.2 billion ($16.7 million) in the previous session. They mainly net bought STB, CTG, and E1VFVN30 certificate.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse dropped 4.47 points to 210, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market went up 0.42 points to 75.54.