The national stock market extended its losses on April 21 as large-cap stocks performed weakly.

The VN-Index decreased 0.5 percent to close at 562.24 points.

Of all stocks, the number of advancing stocks was two-thirds the losers by 81 to 125. A total of 77 others stayed flat.

Market trading volume fell slightly to 98.5 million shares worth 1.65 trillion VND (76.5 million USD), basically unchanged since April 20.

The VN30 Index, tracking the 30 largest codes by market value and liquidity, lost 0.36 percent to end at 593.67 points.

The 30 largest stocks traded 32.4 million shares, worth 582.5 billion VND (26.9 million USD).

In this basket, the number of losing stocks tripled the number of advancing ones by 18 to seven, and five remained flat.

All bank stocks declined. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) and Vietcombank (VCB) in turn had the highest drop with 1.57 and 1.6 percent.

Military Bank (MBB) and Sacombank (STB) continued to decline after their annual shareholders' meetings on April 21. The two stocks dropped 0.73 percent and 0.56 percent, respectively.

Ocean Group JSC (OGC) was the most active code on the southern market. There were more than 9.1 million of its shares being traded and its price fell 2.27 percent to 4,400 VND.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell 0.22 percent to finish at 83.11 points. Among all stocks, there were 105 losing stocks, 81 advancing stocks and 178 stayed flat.

The market's trading volume reached 60 million shares and the market's trading value rose 36 percent to 709.7 billion VND (32.8 million USD).

The HNX30 Index remained unchanged at 158.35 points. In this basket, the number of advancing stocks was half the number of losing ones, and twelve stocks stayed flat.

KLF Joint Venture Global Investment JSC (KLF) was the most active code on the northern market. A total of 18.5 million of its shares were traded for 9,500 VND – a remarkable increase of 7.95 percent.

Foreign investors were net buyers, buying 195 billion VND (9 million USD) on both markets.-VNA