Vietnam's benchmark VN-Index of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) tumbled by a massive 6.67 percent on Thursday, marking its biggest slump since market establishment in September 2001, after the country had reported coronavirus community transmission cases in two northern provinces.
Right at the opening of Thursday's session, the VN-Index plummeted over 65 points over heavy sell-offs from local investors.
The Vietnamese benchmark stock exchange continued struggling as sellers took the upper hand.
By the end of the morning session, more than 300 market identifier codes had lost ground.
A number of large-cap stocks fell sharply, including Vinamilk (VNM), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vietnam Rubber Group (GVR), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), Sabeco (SAB), and Masan (MSN).
Most banking stocks also plunged to the floor prices, including Vietcombank (VCB), BIDV (BID), Techcombank (TCB), Vietinbank (CTG), MBBank (MBB), and VPBank (VPB).
The trio of Vingroup (VIC), Vinhomes (VHM), and Vincom Retail (VRE) were heavily offloaded by investors.
In the midst of market turbulence, a number of stocks managed to buck the trend, such as Viglacera (VGC), Song Da Urban & Industrial Zone Investment Development JSC (SJS), Saigon Telecom Technology JSC (SGT), and IRS Securities (RIC).
A majority of sectors experienced sharp decreases, with finance, energy, raw materials, consumer goods, industry, and real estate falling four percent against the day earlier.
The VN-Index closed the morning session at 1,026.27, down 70.9 points, or 6.46 percent, compared with the previous day.
It fell further in the afternoon to close at 1,023.94, marking a 6.67-percent slump.
The VN30 Index also lost 72.88 points, equal to 6.73 percent, at 1,010.75.
The HNX-Index decreased 17.74 points, or 8.04 percent, to 203.05 at the end of the day.
Going against the domestic selling mode, foreign investors increased net selling to the tune of over VND447 billion (US$19.43 million).
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