With 221 winners and 154 losers, the index lost 2.08 points, or 0.2% against Monday to close at 745.78. Trading volume fell 2% at some 287 million shares while trading value slid 4% at over VND4 trillion. Block deals contributed over VND1.2 trillion to the total value, with nearly 85 million shares changing hands.

The benchmark index has encountered strong headwinds caused by Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It tumbled over 10% over the past four sessions and plunged over 22% in the year to date.

Aside from the investor hesitation, the poor performance of stocks in the Vingroup family dragged the index down.

Retailer VRE decreased as much as 6.8% to its floor price at VND22,100, property firm VIC dropped 4.3%, while housing developer VHM inched down 2.7%. Also, the 5.9% fall experienced by brewery company SAB left significant impact on the VN-Index.

As for banking stocks, most of them managed to rise at the end of the session, with VCB, MBB, TCB closing at the intraday high. Further, MBB and its fellow STB saw high liquidity, with 9.35 million and 8.6 million shares transacted, respectively.

Backed by strong demand, the HNX of the Hanoi Stock Exchange made a sharp rebound today, March 17, ending its seven-session losing streak. At the close, the index improved 1.1 points, or 1.1%, against the session earlier, to 100.72.

Trade volume totaled over 47.5 million shares worth VND511.8 billion, up 17% in volume and 21% in value, from the day earlier.

Many bank stocks on the northern bourse gained ground, with SHB jumping 2.7% and ACB and NVB ending up 1% and 2.3%, respectively.

In addition, industrial firm VCS, gas firm PVS, securities firm SHS and apparel firm TNG were also among the key drivers of the Hanoi bourse.

SHB still led the northern market by liquidity with over 12 million shares transacted.