On the contrary to the expectation that the market would recover after falling sharply in previous trading sessions, pessimism ruled the Vietnam stock market on December 17 with several investors bargaining away their shares.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, large-cap stocks plunged nonstop, causing the Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index to sink to near 518 points, the starting point of the benchmark this year.

Particularly, the index closed at 518.22 points, down 16.92 points, or 3.16 percent with 218 stocks sinking, 35 rallying, and 29 stalling.

The VN30-Index, which tracks which tracks the southern bourse’s top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, also dropped 22.07 points, or 3.73 percent, to 569.71 points. Among the members, only one stock was unchanged while the rest devalued.

Closing the trading session in Hanoi, HNX-Index reduced 2.02 points, or 2.45 percent, to 80.61 points. There were 197 losers, 41 winners, and 39 stocks remained unchanged.

HNX30-Index shrunk 4.61 points, or 2.85 percent, to 157.09 points with 24 stocks decreasing, two growing, and 4 treading water.

The market’s total trading value exceeded VND3.9 trillion.