An investor at the SSI stock trading floor. Shares declined on the domestic stock exchanges on Tuesday. VNS Photo Việt Thanh

HÀ Nội — Shares declined on Tuesday because of cautious sentiment after the holiday season and escalation of the US-China trade war.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange lost 0.48 per cent to close at 979.36 points.

The index dropped total 0.84 per cent last week.

Some 186.5 million shares were traded on the southern bourse on Tuesday, worth nearly VNĐ6.5 trillion (US$278 million).

The large-cap VN30-Index dropped 0.40 per cent to end at 888.97 points with 20 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation declining.

According to Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Securities JSC (SHS), market sentiment turned cautious after the holiday, while indexes struggled with low liquidity.

“Investors seem to be vigilant during this time, especially when the VN-Index is gradually approaching the psychological threshold of 1,000 points,” SHS said in its daily report.

The market was strongly affected by recent global economic and political tensions, especially the escalating US-China trade war.

The US started to impose 15 per cent tariffs on $112 billion of China’s goods from September 1. This is the first phase of the tariff plan on $300 billion worth of goods from China that President Donald Trump announced in early August. In return, China also started collecting taxes on part of $75 billion of US goods from September 1, notably US crude oil was targeted at a 5 per cent tax rate.

Insurance, real estate, securities, energy, banking, agriculture, rubber production, seafood processing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, construction and logistics were the sectors that weighed down the stock market.

Pillar stocks were under selling pressure and mostly all ended down such as Vingroup (VIC) (-0.4 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (-1.9 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (-0.8 per cent), Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PLX) (-1.3 per cent), Vietinbank (CTG) (-1.2 per cent), Vinhomes (VHM) (-0.2 per cent), Vincom Retail (VRE) (-0.6 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (-0.5 per cent), Sabeco (SAB) (- 0.2 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (-0.1 per cent).

Industrial zone real estate also faced profit taking and dropped sharply, including Sonadezi Corporation (SNZ) (-9.7 per cent), Nam Tân Uyên Joint Stock Corporation (NTC) (-8.8 per cent), Industrial Urban Development JSC No 2 (D2D (-7 per cent) and The Phú Mỹ 3 Specialised Industrial Park (SIP) (-5.8 per cent).

In the opposite direction, some pillars increased, helping narrowing the market decline, such as Vinamilk (VNM) (+ 0.8 per cent), FPT Corporation (FPT) (+ 1.1 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (+ 0.1 per cent) and Mobile World Group (MWG) (+ 0.6 per cent).

The HN-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange declined 0.89 per cent to 101.40 points on Tuesday.

More than 31.2 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ563 billion.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company, the VN-Index is forecast to adjust to support zone 970-975 points in the next several sessions.

“The market is expected to recover in this zone. However, the market will continuously experience a wide divergence among stock groups. It will be affected by expectations of third quarter business results, the restructuring of the portfolio of ETFs and the results of the Fed meeting in September,” BVSC said. — VNS