An investor watches stocks being traded on his cellphone. Vietnamese shares, along with global stocks, fell following escalation of US-China trade tensions. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn
The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange dropped 0.70 per cent to close at 990.45 points.
The VN-Index in the previous two trading days had gained a total of 1.15 per cent.
The HNX-Index on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange fell 0.34 per cent to end at 103.53 points.
The northern market index lost 0.52 per cent on Thursday.
The market sentiment dampened after US president Donald Trump tweeted on his Twitter account that his administration would slap a 10 per cent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The latest announcement increased tensions between the world's two largest economies amid a gloomy outlook for global economic growth, bringing down international financial markets.
In Việt Nam, worried investors became more cautious, pulling trading liquidity down on the two local exchanges.
More than 118 million shares were traded on Friday morning, worth VNĐ2.35 trillion (US$101.2 million).
Dragging the market down were real estate, securities, retail, agriculture, seafood processing and energy sectors, data on viestock.vn showed.
Large-cap stocks underperformed, pulling the VN30-Index down 0.40 per cent to 883.80 points, with 24 of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity declining.
The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS
