HÀ NỘI — The stock market ended the final trading session of July on a negative note as selling pressure intensified late in the day, dragging the benchmark indices lower and extending the market's monthly decline.

The VN-Index on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE) closed down 8.88 points to 1,735.78 points. 

For the month, the benchmark lost more than 124 points, or 6.68 per cent, marking its second consecutive monthly loss. The correction also deepened from June, when the index slipped just 0.19 per cent.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index fell 3.8 points to 271.25 points.

Market breadth favoured decliners, with 429 stocks falling against 333 gainers. Within the VN30 basket, 18 stocks declined, while 10 advanced and two closed unchanged.

Liquidity eased from the previous session. On the HoSE, trading value totalled VNĐ19 trillion (US$723 million), while the value on the HNX surpassed VNĐ1.1 trillion.

The market traded in a narrow range for most of the afternoon before selling pressure accelerated towards the close, pushing the VN-Index below the 1,736-point level.

Among large-cap stocks, Vingroup (VIC), Masan Group (MSN), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and HDBank (HDB) weighed most heavily on the benchmark, together shaving more than 11 points off the VN-Index.

On the upside, Vietcombank (VCB), BIDV (BID), VietinBank (CTG) and FPT Digital Retail (FRT) remained in positive territory, helping limit the market's losses.

Foreign investors also reversed course after the previous session's buying, posting net sales of more than VNĐ306.8 billion on HoSE. Selling was concentrated in Vinhomes (VHM), Techcombank (TCB), VPBank (VPB) and Novaland (NVL).

Ahead of the session, Beta Securities (BSI) had cautioned that short-term profit-taking pressure could intensify after many stocks rebounded sharply from recent lows.

The securities firm also noted that investor sentiment is typically more cautious during the final trading session of both the week and the month. 

With the VN-Index approaching a key resistance level in the previous session, market volatility had been widely anticipated.

"Investors should refrain from aggressively increasing exposure to stocks that have rallied sharply, and instead allocate capital gradually to companies with strong fundamentals that are trading at attractive valuations or offer a sufficient margin of safety," BSI said. — BIZHUB/VNS