HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese shares plummeted yesterday as investor confidence was dampened by worries over the increasing pace of the US central bank’s interest rate hike this year.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange tumbled 5.10 per cent or 56.33 points to end at 1,048.71 points. It lost a total 1 per cent last week.

The yesterday loss was also the biggest decline for the benchmark index in terms of percentage since May 8, 2014, when the VN Index plunged 5.87 per cent. In terms of index score, the VN Index recorded the historical reduction yesterday.

The minor HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange dipped 4.06 per cent to close at 118.94 points after having dropped total 2.25 per cent last week.

The UPCoM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) lost 3.25 per cent to finish at 56.93 points. It also declined by a total of 1 per cent in the previous trading week.

More than 392.8 million shares were traded on the local stock exchanges, worth VNĐ10.1 trillion (US$449.4 million).

The yesterday sell-off has reduced market total capitalisation by VNĐ161.4 trillion to VNĐ3.06 quadrillion ($136.2 billion), according to vietstock.vn.

All 20 sectors on the stock market ended in negative territory. The worst-performing industries included finance-banking, real estate, energy and mining, and food and beverage production.

Market trading was totally negative as declining stocks on the three local exchanges outnumbered gainers by 571 to 152, while 85 others were unchanged.

Large-cap stocks also traded poorly as 27 of the 30 largest ones by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket saw their prices down. Thirteen of the 27 declining stocks in the VN30 basket suffered a daily declining limit of 6.9-7 per cent each.

Among the worst decliners were property developer Vingroup (VIC), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BID) and Vietcombank (VCB), and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the shake of the market on Monday was caused by poor investor sentiment as investors were worried about more-than-expected interest rate hikes made by the US central bank.

The US employment report on Friday revealed upbeat data in January as wages grew at the fastest pace in eight years, boosting expected inflation in the next few months to a high level.

The US data also suggested the US central bank could make more than three rate hikes this year, which triggered a massive sell-off in global markets.

“Việt Nam’s stock market, which has a closer relationship with the global stock market than in the past, I was also affected. It experienced a dramatic loss today and could still suffer the influence in the next sessions,” (BVSC) said in its daily report.

In addition, “buying demand was beaten by profit-taking pressure and margin reduction before the upcoming long-week holiday. Therefore, the market fell across the board, causing a panic and fear in the market,” BVSC added.

The securities company forecast that “selling pressure will continue to rise in the first half of the next session, then market demand and supply will turn more balanced when the index declines to the 1,000-1,020 support zone.” — VNS