HÀ NỘI — Domestic losses slackened off on Thursday although global markets was strongly affected by the outcome of the US Federal Reserve (Fed)’s meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points as expected, pushing the central bank’s interest rate to a range of 2.25 to 2.50 per cent.

Following the news, the S&P 500 Index lost 1.54 per cent to hit its lowest level since September 2017.

On the Vietnamese market, the VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange edged down just 0.11 per cent to end the morning session at 918.24 points.

It fell 0.86 per cent to end trading at 919.24 points on Wednesday.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched up 0.35 per cent to 104.53 points in the morning session.

The index fell 0.25 per cent to 104.16 points on Wednesday.

More than 188.2 million shares worth a combined VNĐ4.3 trillion (US$184 million) were traded on the two markets.

Meanwhile, market breadth was neutral with 193 stocks declining and 215 gaining, while 346 ended flat.

The sharp fall on the market in recent days, together with the expectation that the Fed’s interest rate hike would affect stock prices, triggered investors to snap up low-priced stocks, a trend that likely helped limit losses on the indices.

Across the 20 sectors on the stock market, 14 industries saw share prices increasing, including energy firms, property developers, brokerages, construction material and IT companies.

However, blue chip stocks were still hit hard. The VN30 Index, which tracks the overall performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, was down 0.65 per cent at 877.03 points.

Decliners included Vincom Retail (VRE), VPBank (VPB) and Vietinbank (CTG). Gainers included insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS), real estate developer Novaland (NVL) and Vietcombank (VCB).

According to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS), the Fed’s fourth interest rates hike of 2018 and the likelihood of further hikes in 2019 is disappointing information for investors.

SHS said in its daily report that the stock market would obviously continue to face pressure. On the Vietnamese market, the conclusion of the two exchange-traded funds (ETF) – FTSE ETF and V.N.M ETF on the third-quarter portfolio restructuring would also affect investors’ decisions.

The company forecast that the VN-Index would fluctuate at around the 920-point mark.

“We recommend investors step back for the time being given the unpredictable market,” SHS said. — VNS