The sign of DHG Pharmaceutical JSC at its headquarter in the southern city of Can Tho. The company's stock was among the large-caps that performed worst on Friday. — Photo vietnamfinance.vn

Viet Nam’s benchmark VN-Index dropped near 990 points on Friday, largely because of the negative development in trade relations between the US and China.

The VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) lost 0.63 per cent to end the week at 991.10 points.

It lost as much as 1.17 per cent in the opening session of the day.

The benchmark index had gained total 1.15 per cent in the previous trading day.

After five trading days of the week, the VN-Index was down total 0.22 per cent from the previous week’s close of 993.35 points.

The benchmark index ended the week on a negative note as market sentiment turned from “cautious” to “bad” following US President Donald Trump’s latest announcement on another tax bill towards Chinese goods, securities firms noted.

Trump on late Thursday tweeted the US government would slap a 10 per tax on US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports, worsening the trade relations between the two largest economies.

Under this circumstance, foreign investors net-sold VND202 billion worth of Vietnamese shares on HoSE, double Thursday’s figure.

Large-cap stocks were hit. The large-cap VN30-Index was down 0.24 per cent to end at 885.29 points.

Eighteen of the 30 largest stocks by market value and trading liquidity in the VN30 group declined.

Among those stocks were PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), property firms Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC) and Vinhomes (VHM), Vietcombank (VCB) and DHG Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG).

The market’s strong decline in the early morning meant investors were cautious at the moment, Thanh Cong Securities Co (TCSC) said in a note.

The VN-Index approached the 1,000-point level, which was last hit in April 2019, and investors locked in profits in large-cap stocks immediately, the company said.

But the VN-Index declined at a slower pace compared to other markets, therefore, a number of investors were still optimistic about the market’s short-term prospects, MB Securities Co (MBS) said.

Willingness to buy in local stocks helped boost trading liquidity to VND6.26 trillion worth of shares on HoSE and nearly 186.8 million shares were traded on the southern market.

External impact of global markets on the Vietnamese market was less than expected and investors were firm believing in the internal strength of the local market, MBS added.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index inched down 0.17 per cent to finish at 103.70 points.

The northern market index has dropped total 0.7 per cent in the last two days and 2.54 per cent this week.

Nearly 26 million shares were exchanged on the northern market, worth VND460.6 billion. — VNS