After hitting a new record yesterday, the stock market opened this morning and quickly fell below the reference point. Following the opening auction, the VN-Index dropped to near 1,660 points before briefly recovering. However, the gains were short-lived.

Continuous selling orders, focused on blue-chip stocks, pushed the market to lower price levels. At one point, the market was down almost 44 points. With slight fluctuations in the final minutes of the morning session, the VN-Index closed at 1,646 points before the lunch break, down nearly 42 points from yesterday's close.

VN-Index and VN30-Index chart in the morning session of 22/8. Photo: VNDirect

VN-Index and VN30-Index chart in the morning session of 22/8. Photo: VNDirect

Market breadth strongly favored declining stocks, with 291 stocks on the HoSE in the red, accounting for over 79%. Among them, six stocks hit the floor, mainly mid- and small-cap stocks with low liquidity. Only 50 stocks advanced.

The market this morning was heavily influenced by securities and banking stocks – groups that saw strong gains in previous sessions. VPB, TCB, and VHM were the stocks that contributed the most to the overall index decline.

In the securities sector – an industry highly sensitive to market prospects – gains were scarce. VNDirect's VND closed the morning session 6.2% lower than the reference price, while EVF dropped 5.2%. Other notable stocks like SSI, VIX, VCI, and HCM fell more than 3-4%. On the HNX, SHS and MBS both declined over 6%.

The banking sector was more divided, with some stocks like VCB, BID, MSB, and OCB still holding gains of over 1-2%. However, most of the remaining stocks faced selling pressure. VPB fell 6.3%, and SHB dropped 5.7%. Other stocks such as TPB, TCB, MBB, ACB, STB, HDB, and EIB all fell between 3.5% and 5%.

Investors are watching the stock market board at a securities company in TP HCM. Photo: Quynh Tran

Investors are watching the stock market board at a securities company in TP HCM. Photo: Quynh Tran

Morning trading volume reached nearly 31,700 billion VND. For most of the trading session, liquidity remained relatively similar to yesterday morning, but the cash flow started to strengthen after 11 a.m., widening the gap with the previous morning session to about 5,700 billion VND.

Foreign investors continued their selling streak, net selling approximately 1,224 billion VND this morning. HPG saw a net sell of over 755 billion VND, and VPB was the only other stock with net selling exceeding 100 billion VND. Conversely, foreign investors bought scattered shares in VIX, HDB, and PDR.

In its pre-market report this morning, VPBank Securities (VPBankS) stated that the VN-Index remains in an uptrend, but after a continuous accumulation of points, the market is showing signs of being overbought. The dominance of red in many mid-cap stocks in the previous session suggests that this is a rally driven by large-cap stocks, not a broad market rally.

VPBankS recommends that investors can continue to hold large-cap stocks but should closely monitor the 1,680-1,700 point range to take partial profits. During market fluctuations, they can consider increasing their holdings around the short-term support level of 1,640-1,650 points.

Tat Dat