Both national stock exchanges closed in the red on December 30, with major losses marked on the benchmark indices.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the VN Index tumbled 1.2 percent to finish at 500.35 points.

According to FPT Securities, strong selling pressure during the final minutes of afternoon trading dragged down the benchmark indices.

However, liquidity improved over last Friday. The total trading value was 1.6 trillion VND (76,19 million USD) on the exchange of 94.28 million shares.

Blue chips suffered strong losses on December 30, with 25 of the southern city's 30 largest shares by capitalisation and liquidity declining, making the VN30-Index slide 1.05 percent to 556.37 points.

PetroVietnam (PVT) dropped 800 VND (0.038 USD) to its floor price of 11,000 VND (0.52 USD).

Masan Group (MSN) slid by 1,500 VND (0.07 USD) to 82,500 VND (3.9 USD) per share, while Hoa Sen Group (HSG), real estate giant Vingroup (VIC), and Vinamilk (VNM) lost 1,000 VND (0.048 USD) per share each.

Other decliners such as Bao Viet Group (BVH), PetroVietnam General Services (PET), FPT Group (FPT), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), Ocean Group (OGC), and Vietcombank (VCB) lost between 100 VND (0.0048 USD) and 800 VND (0.038 USD) per share each.

Only Sacombank (STB) and Thanh Tanh Cong Tay Ninh Sugar JSC (SBT) managed to increase by 100 VND (0.0048 USD) and 300 VND (0.0142 USD) per share yesterday, respectively, while Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Military Bank (MBB), and Pha Lai Thermo-electricity (PPC) retained their reference prices.

Overall, on the southern bourse, only 37 codes managed to increase while 199 codes lost.

On the Hanoi Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 1.44 percent to hit 66.95 points, while the HNXFF-Index, composed of stocks with a minimum free-float rate of 5 percent, closed at 66.92 points, 1.46 percent lower due to the pressure of profit-taking.

With 59.88 million shares traded, the total value reached 486.5 billion VND (23.16 million USD).

The HNX30-Index, tracking the capital city's 30 largest shares, had a hard loss of 2.14 percent to reach 124.96 points.

The market will be closed on January 1 for the public holiday and will resume on January 2.-VNA