Unstable attitudes to securities investment continued dragging the VN-Index down 0.13 per cent for the fifth consecutive day; closing at 518.93 points on Thursday.
Value of day trade remained high at VND2.17 trillion (US$114.2 million) with 59.5 million shares changed hands, with Sacombank (STB) withstanding Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) to be the most active stock, responsible for nearly 3 million shares traded.
On the smaller Ha Noi bourse, the HNX-Index slowed its fall by dropping only 0.90 per cent to end the day trade at 173.16 points, with 41.4 million shares subjected to trade to value at VND1.42 trillion ($74.7 million).
PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) saw the biggest trading volume of 6.3 million shares.
Dai Viet Securities' analysts attributed the instability to the continued uncertainty in overseas markets and the volatilites of the domestic market due to the threat of leveraged money.
This attitude held back the purchase of securities while capital seemed to flow into gold and foreign currency, they said, noting the continuous hike of domestic gold price.
Fiachra Mac Cana, Head of Research at HCM City Securities, said in the Wednesday market report that the sell-off was fuelled mainly by technical selling linked to leveraged products mostly in penny stocks.
Cana explained that some institutions had offered some leveraged products in penny stocks recently and when profit-taking accelerated, it rapidly turned a correction into a more dramatic fall.
Dai Viet Securities'analysts said that 510 points could represent the new resistance mark during the period of correction and investors could buy in blue chips for the mid- and long-term perspectives.
Foreign investors had a busy day on the stock exchanges catching the right time to hold cheap stocks. This sector became net-buyers in both markets by picking up a combined 1.3 million shares, equivalent to a net value of VND70 billion ($3.7 million).