Strong declines among blue chips on July 29 afternoon erased morning gains and dragged down the benchmark VN-Index by 1.07 percent to close the session at 624.70 points.
The market condition on the HCM Stock Exchange was negative as losers outnumbered gainers by 130-84, while other 92 stocks ended flat. Only two of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity gained value while 24 plummeted, including heavy-weight stocks such as Vietinbank (CTG), Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB), Eximbank (EIB), Masan Group (MSN), VinGroup (VIC), and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) with decreases between 0.6-2.2 percent.
The VN30 dropped 1.27 percent to stand at 651.21 points.
According to analysts, the previous rally was mainly driven by the growth of several major blue chips, but it was not been built on a sustainable foundation.
Therefore, they added, a downward correction was essential for the market to accumulate enough valuation to go further.
However, there are views that the ongoing crash on the Chinese stock market and impending interest rate hike by the Fed impacted foreign trades and dampened domestic sentiment.
Foreign investors continued to sell local stocks on July 29 in the two markets. They sold a net value of 113.3 billion VND (5.2 million USD) in HCM City, a rise of 32 percent over July 28. Their net sell value also nearly tripled the previous session in Hanoi, reaching 6.7 billion VND (307,300 USD).
Overall liquidity declined substantially. Trading volume was down 26 percent to more than 114 million shares while the market value fell 33 percent to reach 2.16 trillion VND (99.1 million USD).
FLC Group (FLC) remained the most active with 10.8 million shares traded, climbing 2.6 percent to end at 8,000 VND a share.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also edged down 0.55 percent to finish the session at 85.11 points.
Banks such as the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) weighed the bourse down while purchasing power also weakened because of growing caution. The market volume on July 29 decreased 10 percent from previous day, totalling nearly 46 million shares, while value of trades was 20 percent lower at 526.3 billion VND (24.1 million USD).
Speculative KLF Joint Venture Global Investment Co (KLF) was the leading stock in term of volume with nearly seven million shares, rising 1.75 percent to close at 5,800 VND a share.
FLC Joint Venture Global Investment Joint Stock Company (KLF), the most active on the measure with seven million shares traded, rose 1.75 percent to end at 5,800 VND.-VNA