The fact that the VN-Index closed the 30.1 session holding steady at the 1,800 point mark is quite important in the context that the market has just undergone a relatively strong correction. However, according to assessments from experts, this recovery is mainly technical, reflecting a short-term oversold state rather than the return of a new upward trend.
And that was shown right in the morning session of the first trading day of February. The market opened in green, but the increase was quite weak, the VN-Index quickly turned red when entering the continuous order matching session.
Selling pressure continued to increase sharply on a large scale along with great pressure from the bluechip stock group, causing the market to widen its decrease range and VN-Index to "evaporate" nearly 50 points due to selling pressure continuing to increase sharply.
VN-Index decreased by 46.47 points (-2.54%) to 1,782.57 points. Total trading volume reached 532.4 million units, value 17,492 billion VND.
The VN30 group sank into red when closing the session with 26 declining stocks and only 2 stocks, GVR and CTG, increased by less than 0.5%. Among them, Vingroup stocks led the decline, with VHM and VIC both decreasing to the full range. VIC-VHM alone took away nearly 22 points of the general index.
In terms of industry groups, the entire market only has a few groups that have maintained green color. Among them, the energy group, although decreasing in height, is still one of the few to successfully go against the market trend.
The real estate group with the burden from Vin's large stocks, this is still the group in the top of the strongest declines in the market. Besides, the pillar group of bank-securities-steel continued to extend the decrease range when red color almost flooded the industries.
No securities group maintained green color, in which VIX traded most actively in the industry, reaching 22.8 million units, closing the session down 4.2%; followed by SSI down 1.4% and matched 12.8 million units.
According to experts' assessment, past data statistics in the period before Tet (about the first two weeks of February), the market often enters an information valley with reduced liquidity. Cautious trading sentiment prevails when individual investors limit opening new positions, while margin cash flow tends to cool down to avoid loan interest costs over long holidays.
Besides the market trend story, a variable that investors are paying special attention to is margin debt - when the leverage level is at a record high. According to statistics, the total value of margin lending of the entire Vietnamese stock industry exceeded the 400,000 billion VND mark as of December 31, 2025, an increase of about 23,000 billion VND compared to the end of the third quarter of 2025 and set a new margin record in the more than 25-year history of the Vietnamese stock market.
Record high margin balance is indeed a factor that makes the market more sensitive to corrections, but if only looking at absolute numbers to worry about a deep systemic decline, it is not really comprehensive.
Experts believe that it is necessary to place margin balance in relation to the capital scale of securities companies. In 2025 and 2026, many securities companies will increase capital. Most large securities companies maintain a Margin/Equity ratio at a safe level (74% - 102%), showing that the capital increase in 2025 has created a very good defensive buffer for the market.
Regarding the risk of deep declines that may trigger call margin/collateral release, experts believe that this may occur when the market decreases rapidly, penetrates important support zones and is accompanied by a sudden increase in liquidity, reflecting local selling pressure.
At the present time, these conditions are not fully converged, while the margin structure mainly focuses on large-cap, highly liquid stocks, helping to reduce the probability of chain collateral release on a large scale. Therefore, high margin at this stage should be seen as a factor amplifying short-term fluctuations rather than a systemic risk signal.
For investors, it is important to control the leverage ratio at a reasonable level and prioritize portfolio quality, instead of overreacting to technical fluctuations of the market.
