VN-Index plunges below 1,000-point mark on massive sell-offs

The VN-Index, which tracks the performance of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), fell below the 1,000-point mark during the opening session of the week amid massive sell-offs.

Closing the Monday session, the benchmark index plunged 35.13 points, or 3.44%, to 985.21, marking the strongest fall in three weeks.

There were 382 losers on the major bourse, including 97 that hit their floor prices, and only 56 gainers, with more than 623 million shares traded for VND9.97 trillion ($422.4 million), an increase of 9.61% against the previous session last Friday.

The VN30-Index, which reflects the performance of the 30 largest-cap stocks, fell over 46 points, or 4.48%, to 987.77, with only one gainer and 29 losers.

Of those, eight blue chips suffered maximum declines, namely VGR of Vietnam Rubber Group, MWG of Mobile World Investment Corp, NVL of Novaland Group, PDR of Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corp, TCB of Techcombank, HPG of steel maker Hoa Phat, SSI of Saigon Securities, and STB of Sacombank. Meanwhile, GAS of PV Gas was the bright spot, gaining 1.1%.

The color red overwhelmed almost all stock groups, including banking, securities, real estate, construction, oil and gas, chemicals, and garments, with many tickers hitting their floor prices.

On the other side, water stocks made an impression with BWR of Binh Duong Water Environment JSC increasing 0.2%, TDM of Thu Dau Mot Water JSC 0.4%, and DNW of Dong Nai Water JSC 1.1%.

Among insurance codes, PTI of Post-Telecommunication Insurance went up 4.5%, marking its 10-session gaining streak with a total expansion of over 104%.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of more than VND400 billion ($16.95 million) on the HoSE. They mainly net purchased HPG, VCB of Vietcombank, MSN of Masan Group, and VNM of Vinamilk.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi bourse went down 6.8 points to 198.5, while the UpCOM-Index on the unlisted public company market dropped 1.3 points to 69.71.