Losses in bank stocks weigh on market sentiment

An employee performs a transaction at Vietcombank's office in Vĩnh Phúc Province. Shares of the lender tumbled more than 1 per cent on Monday, leading the downtrend. — VNA/VNS Photo HÀ NỘI — The stock market extended losses on Monday, weighed by lingering selling pressure after the benchmark VN-Index inched closer to the 1,270 point-level last week.On the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index dropped 11.86 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 1,235.49 points. The index fell more than 21 points on Friday and marked the first weekly decrease in four weeks. The breadth of the market remained negative as the number of decliners surpassed that of gainers by 228 to 95. Liquidity plummeted to nearly VNĐ24 trillion (US$968.75 million) from VNĐ32.5 trillion in the previous session, equal to a trading volume of about 976 million shares. The 30 biggest stocks tracker VN30-Index also finished lower at 1,235.12 points, down 15.08 points, or 1.21 per cent. Up to 25 ticker symbols in the VN30 basket ticked down, while three rose and two stayed unchanged. Stocks across all sectors, especially the banking industry, faced strong selling pressure.Statistics from a financial website vietstock.vn showed that Vietcombank (VCB) was the biggest loser on Monday, leading the downtrend with a fall of 1.05 per cent. Other banks experiencing strong sell-off were VPBank (VPB), BIDV (BID), MBBank (MBB) and Techcombank (TCB). These stocks declined in a range of 1.17 - 2.75 per cent. Also weighing on the sentiment, PV Gas (GAS) dipped 2.14 per cent, shares of leading steel producer Hòa Phát (HPG) also plunged 1.32 per cent, Masan Group (MSN) was down 1.27 per cent and Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) fell 2.83 per cent. The market was not surprised by the corrections as cash flow has been almost exclusively concentrated in the group of pillar stocks to push up the index in the recent trading sessions, according to Viet Dragon Securities. The technical indicators of many stocks have fallen into the overbought zone, making the VN-Index's upward momentum unsustainable. As a result, a market correction is necessary, the securities firm added. The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX) also opened the week on a negative note. It lost 2.48 points, or 1.05 per cent, to 233.84 points. During the session, more than 96 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ2 trillion. Meanwhile, foreign investors net bought a total value of VNĐ92.13 billion on the two main exchanges. Of which, they net bought VNĐ244 billion on HoSE but net sold VNĐ151.88 billion on HNX. — VNS