HÀ NỘI — The market's benchmark VN-Index closed lower on Thursday, ending a two-session winning streak as banking and property stocks faced strong selling pressure, while foreign investors returned to net selling.

The VN-Index on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HoSE) fell 12.15 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 1,734.75 points. 

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity, lost 15.84 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 1,839.43 points.

The market's breadth remained in the negative zone as the number of decliners doubled that of gainers. However, liquidity improved from the previous trade, increasing 9.3 per cent from the previous session to over VNĐ15.1 trillion (US$589.4 million).

Banking stocks came under broad selling pressure, with several major lenders closing in negative territory. VPB of VPBank fell 1.79 per cent, while TCB of Techcombank dropped 1.37 per cent.

BIDV (BID) declined 1.08 per cent and MBBank (MBB) lost 1.03 per cent. Other major banking stocks also weakened, with CTG of VietinBank down 0.79 per cent and Vietcombank (VCB) falling 0.55 per cent.

Property blue chips added to the downward pressure. Vingroup (VIC) fell 0.9 per cent, while Vinhomes (VHM) declined 0.48 per cent.

VIC, VPB and TCB were the biggest contributors to the market's decline. 

On the other side, Petrovietnam Refining And Petrochemical Corporation (BSR), Petrolimex (PLX) and Sacombank (STB) helped cushion losses, although their gains were insufficient to offset the pressure from declining stocks.

Several individual stocks attracted buying interest. Dat Phuong Group (DPG) rose 6.46 per cent, while Thong Nhat Rubber (TNC), Lilama 10 (L10), First Real (FIR) and Lilama 18 (LM8) all hit their ceiling prices.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) finished higher at 256.62 points, up 0.89 points, or 0.35 per cent. More than 46.3 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth over VNĐ629.1 billion. 

Adding pressure into the market, foreign investors reversed course after two consecutive sessions of net buying, recording net sales of more than VNĐ900 billion across the market.

FPT Corporation (FPT) faced the strongest foreign selling pressure, with net sales of nearly VNĐ450 billion. Khang Dien Hourse (KDH) followed with VNĐ107.08 billion in net selling, ahead of STB at VNĐ98.74 billion, Sahabank (SHB) at VNĐ56.21 billion, and VIC at VNĐ35.74 billion. — BIZHUB/VNS