A statue of a bull stands at the entrance of the Hanoi Stock Exchange. — AFP/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese markets ended down on Monday as negative news from international markets clouded local investors' sentiment.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.86 per cent to close at 762.47 points.

The VN-Index fell a total of nearly 1.0 per cent last week when there were only three days of trading before the national holiday.

Nearly 285.6 million shares were traded on the southern bourse on Monday, valued at VNĐ4 trillion (US$171.8 million).

The market breadth was negative as decliners outnumbered gainers by 251 to 110.

According to Reuters, the US-China quarrel over the origins of the novel coronavirus had triggered fears of a new trade war, slamming global markets.

US stock futures fell 1.7 per cent and US crude tumbled 7 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.5 per cent.

Many large-caps were hit strongly such as brewer Sabeco (SAB) (-4.9 per cent), dairy firm Vinamilk (VNM) (-1.4 per cent), Vietcombank (VCB) (-0.9 per cent), Masan Group (MSN) (-2.6 per cent), steelmaker Hòa Phát Group (HPG) (-2.3 per cent), Bank for Investment and Development (BID) (-0.8 per cent), VPBank (VPB) (-2.2 per cent), budget carrier Vietjet (VJC) (-1 per cent) and Novaland (NVL) (-0.8 per cent).

Helping to reduce the drop were Vinhomes (VHM) (+2 per cent), HDBank (HDB) (+ 4.4 per cent), Vincom Retail (VRE) (+1.5 per cent), PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) (+0.6 per cent), Techcombank (TCB) (+1.2 per cent), sugar producer Thành Thành Công - Biên Hòa Joint Stock Company (SBT) (+2.9 per cent) and Vietinbank (CTG) (+0.3 per cent).

Retail, wholesale, logistics, healthcare, banking, oil and gas, insurance, real estate, agriculture, food and beverage, construction, securities, information and technology and rubber production were among the losers.

The sector indices declined between 0.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and liquidity on HoSE, lost 0.84 per cent to close at 709.35 points.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Co, the VN-Index would drop to 755-760 points during the next session.

“The index may possibly drop to 700-730 points in the short term if it fails to maintain support,” the company said.

“The market will continue to experience a wide divergence among stock sectors following Q1 profit results and 2020 business plans. Profits in Q1 and Q2 this year are likely to below expectations due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Foreign investors’ long-lasting net selling pressure will also possibly trigger negative sentiment and increase selling pressure at the downturn,” the company said.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dropped 1.05 to end Monday at 105.72 points.

More than 41.6 million shares were traded on the northern bourse for VNĐ316.5 billion. — VNS