The statue of a bull and a bear in front of the HCM Stock Exchange. The benchmark VN Index lost 0.25 per cent to close Tuesday morning at 985.12 points. — Photo tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn

Vietnamese shares fell on Tuesday morning, dragged down by low investor confidence following the announcement of US tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange dropped 0.25 per cent to close at 985.12 points.

The southern bourse index lost 0.38 per cent on Monday after having gained a total of 2.3 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange edged down 0.22 per cent to end at 112.51 points.

The northern market index lost 0.54 per cent in the previous session.

More than 129 million shares were traded on the two local bourses, worth nearly VND2.5 trillion (US$110.8 million).

Declining stocks outnumbered gaining ones by 233 to 151 while 104 other stocks closed unchanged.

The market sentiment was dragged down by the US latest decision to impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, raising tensions between the two largest economies.

The industries that saw stocks decline were real estate, banking, energy, rubber and plastic production, and construction.

Those sector indices dropped between 0.15 per cent and 0.79 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Large-cap stocks also underperformed as the large-cap VN30 Index was down 0.25 per cent to 951.40 points with two-thirds of the 30 largest shares by market capitalisation falling.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. — VNS