HÀ NỘI — The market's benchmark VN-Index fell below the 1,700-point threshold on Monday as losses in large-cap stocks, particularly Vingroup's VIC, outweighed gains across a number of sectors.

The VN-Index on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed down 16.07 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 1,689.84 points. 

However, market breadth on the southern bourse remained positive, with 162 stocks advancing, compared with 133 decliners. The pattern showed that gains in the broader market were insufficient to offset selling pressure on heavyweight stocks, leaving the main index in negative territory.

Liquidity on HoSE increased from the previous session but remained at a low level, reaching VNĐ13.35 trillion (US$516 million).

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on the HoSE, dropped 16.23 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 1,839.18 points. In the VN30 basket, 18 ticker symbols edged lower, while 11 went up and one stayed unchanged. 

Vingroup (VIC) was the biggest drag on the VN-Index, subtracting approximately 12.66 points from the benchmark. Other major contributors to the decline included Vietcombank (VCB), Vinhomes (VHM), VPBank (VPB) and Hoa Phat Group (HPG), which reduced the index by around 1.22 points, 1.21 points, 0.82 points and 0.61 points, respectively.

BIDV (BID), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Sacombank (STB) also added to the downward pressure.

Of the top ten negatively influencing the benchmark, half were from the banking industry. Selling pressure on banking stocks came amid renewed emphasis from policymakers on reducing lending rates to support businesses and economic activity.

At a monetary policy management meeting last week, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Văn Thắng said lending rates remained high, increasing capital costs and affecting production, business operations and the ability of individuals and enterprises to access credit.

He called on the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to reassess the implementation of measures taken to stabilise interest rates and promptly introduce further measures to lower lending rates.

The requested reduction was 1.5–2 percentage points for production and business activities, as well as priority sectors, to support the economy.

On the positive side, several stocks helped limit the market's losses. PetroVietnam Refining and Petrochemical (BSR) contributed approximately 0.54 points to the VN-Index, followed by Vinpearl (VPL) with 0.4 points, Masan Group (MSN) with 0.33 points, PV Gas (GAS) with 0.31 points, and LPBank (LPB) with 0.29 points.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also lost 1.22 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 257.91 points.

Foreign investors were net sellers across the two stock exchanges, offloading nearly VNĐ979 billion on HoSE and VNĐ46 billion on HNX. — BIZHUB/VNS