HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s benchmark VN Index edged down 0.70 per cent to close at 1,188.29 points on Tuesday as investor confidence was dampened by major declines in US stocks.

The VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange had gained a total of 2.5 per cent in the previous two sessions to set its new record high of 1,196.61 points on Monday.

More than 255 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VNĐ8 trillion (US$354.6 million).

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by 171 to 121, proving the market trading condition was quite negative. Meanwhile, 48 other stocks ended flat.

Large-cap stocks stunned the market as the VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, dropped 0.87 per cent to the day-close level of 1,160.97 points.

Seventeen of the 30 largest stocks in the basket saw their values decline while 12 others made gains.

The worst decliners among those stocks included FLC Faros Construction (ROS), digital retailer Mobile World (MWG), brewer Sabeco (SAB) and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM). They each lost at least 3 per cent.

The steep decline of the Vietnamese benchmark index on Tuesday was attributed to poor investor sentiment following the extended losses in the US stocks market.

The US stocks continued to fall on April 2 on rising fears for a potential trade war between China and the US and on a selloff of technology shares.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company (BVSC), the US stock market faces further volatility amid the post-growth period.

“Therefore, this can still be considered an objective risk to Việt Nam’s stock market,” BVSC said in its daily report.

Such risks forced foreign investors to turn into net sellers, posting a total net sell value of VNĐ339.5 billion against their net buy value of VNĐ61.2 billion recorded on Monday.

Regarding the potential trade war between the two biggest economies, BVSC was optimistic, claiming that “the possibility of the US-China trade war on a large scale is negligible.”

Though the VN Index suffered on Tuesday, there were signs that the domestic market was in good sentiments relative to the world as a whole, illustrated by the high trading liquidity of the last two sessions, Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities Company (SHS) said.

Investors demonstrated strong confidence in the shares of securities firms, which are believed to benefit from the rise of the market’s total trading liquidity.

The average trading volume and value of each session in the first three months of 2018 has reached 356.5 million shares and VNĐ9.32 trillion, raising investors’ hopes for prosperous first quarter earnings for securities firms.

Securities firms that gained on Tuesday included VNDirect Securities (VND), Vietinbank Securities (CTS), HCM City Securities (HCM) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI).

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index recovered in the last minutes to close at 135.62 points, up 0.17 per cent from Monday and up a total of 2.8 per cent after the last three sessions.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) fell 0.76 per cent to end at 60.45 points, retreating from its previous three-day growth of a total of 2 per cent. — VNS