Rising economic and trade tension between China and the US and a faster-than-expected US rate hike have dampened investors’ confidence in Vietnamese stocks.– Photo vietnamfinance.vn

HÀ NỘI – Rising economic and trade tension between China and the US and a faster-than-expected US rate hike have dampened investors’ confidence in Vietnamese stocks.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 1.49 per cent to close Friday at 1,008.39 points.

The southern market index had gained total 1 per cent in the previous three straight sessions but Friday’s decline has erased its entire growth this week.

The VN-Index ended this week 0.86 per cent lower than the previous one.

The HNX Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange lost 1.37 per cent to end at 114.67 points, putting an end to its two-day increase of total 1.1 per cent.

The northern market index dropped total 1.38 per cent on a weekly basis.

More than 356.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VNĐ12.5 trillion (US$555.2 million).

The trading figures were up 49 per cent in volume and 128 per cent in value compared to Thursday.

Strong selling pressure was attributed to rising US-China trade tensions after some Chinese technology firms were reported on Thursday to have been installing tech products with spy chips, raising concerns about an escalation of the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.

In addition, some comments by the US Fed have indicated there would be more than two rate hikes in the near future, making US bond yields surge to their highest level since 2011, BIDV Securities JSC (BSC) said in its daily report.

Such factors contributed to the fall of market sentiment on Friday, resulting in a negative market condition with nearly 300 declining stocks against 170 gainers.

The large-cap VN30 Index lost nearly 1.3 per cent to finish at 980.75 points with 22 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the basket ending in negative territory.

On a sector basis, 15 of the 20 sectors saw share prices drop, including real estate, securities, technology, banking, petroleum, food and beverages, retail and seafood processing.

The 15 industry indices were down between 0.8 per cent and 4.4 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Bảo Việt Securities JSC (BVSC) said the VN-Index fell after having rallied for three consecutive sessions as it was encountering the strong resistance zone of 1,024-1,027 points.

Increasing selling pressure as the VN-Index approached that point range signalled the benchmark would fall deeper to 996-1,003 points before recovering, BVSC added. – VNS