A man points to an electronic stock quotation board at a securities company in HCMC. The VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange went down 0.7% to close at 1,241.81 points on Friday - PHOTO: THANH HOA

HCMC - Investor sentiment was weighed down by the rising local Covid-19 cases, sending the VN-Index of the Hochiminh Stock Exchange down 0.7%, or 8.76 points, to 1,241.81 points today, May 7.

Losing stocks far outnumbered winners by 307 to 118. The southern market saw 783 million shares worth VND22.4 trillion change hands, increasing 7.19% in volume and 10.37% in value against the session earlier. More than 37.8 million shares worth nearly VND1.35 trillion were traded in block deals.

In the VN30 basket, 22 stocks declined, while only seven gained ground and one closed at the reference price.

Financial investment company TCH and insurer BVH were the biggest losers, closing down over 3%. Dairy processor VNM, sugar producer SBT, lender VCB and low-cost carrier VJC lost more than 2%.

Petroleum stocks were also the major drag. BSR experienced the steepest decline as it lost over 5%. OIL and PVD fell more than 3%, PVS lost 2% and PVB, POW and GAS were down over 1% each.

Steel stocks and some bank stocks helped prevent the benchmark index from falling lower. HSG, NKG and TLH soared more than 5%, while POM and VIS rose more than 3%. Lenders HDB, LPB and TPB surged 4.2%, 3.8% and 3.4%, respectively.

Lender STB took the lead in terms of liquidity on the southern bourse, with nearly 48.5 million shares changing hands.

In the group of speculative stocks, many dipped into the red, such as ROS, HQC, ITA, HNG, HAI, DLG, TSC and LDG. FLC and AMD were among a few gainers, rising 1.8% and 5.3%, respectively.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.44%, or 1.23 points, to close at 279.86 points, with decliners outnumbering gainers by 155 to 66. There were some 114.8 million shares worth VND2.17 trillion changing hands.

Lenders SHB and NVB, industrial development firm IDC and securities company VND gained ground, preventing the HNX-Index from a sharper drop.

In contrast, petroleum stocks such as PVS, PVB and PVC were the main draggers, dropping 2.4%, 1.9% and 3.1%, respectively.

Lender SHB was the most actively traded stock on the northern market with 21.94 million shares changing hands.