Vietnamese shares were subdued on Monday as market sentiment was dragged down by the escalation of the US-China trade war.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange dropped nearly 1 per cent to close at 982.88 points.

The benchmark index gained a total of 1.27 per cent last week.

Nearly 189.8 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VND4.33 trillion (US$186.4 million).

The VN-Index started the trading day in the negative territory as investors responded to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose more tariffs on Chinese products.

Despite Trump walking back his comments and hailing Chinese President Xi Jinping following his threats, investors in Viet Nam’s equity market were uneasy on worries about further escalation of the trade war between the two sides and the world’s economic growth prospects.

Statements from the US and China showed the two sides would not step down to resolve the disputes and the conflict between the two largest economies may last longer than expected, Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities (SHS) said in a report.

The sectors that pulled the Vietnamese stock market down on Monday included insurance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, energy and mining, securities, banking, agriculture and food and beverage.

Those sector indices fell by between 0.8 and 2.2 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

Large-cap stocks also performed poorly as the VN30-Index lost 0.89 per cent to end Monday at 892.48 points.

In the VN30 basket, 22 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity declined, including Coteccons Construction (CTD), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), brewer Sabeco (SAB), aviation firm Vietjet (VJC) and Vietcombank (VCB).

Foreign investors net sold more than VND197 billion worth of shares on Monday, which “was a negative point for the Vietnamese market,” SHS said.

But according to securities firms, there were still some positives as some groups of stocks performed well despite the pressure.

The market’s overall performance was not too negative, VNDirect Securities Corp (VNDS) said in a note.

Sellers did not want to exit the market as soon as possible despite being under pressure from international markets, while buyers were willing to buy assets, the company said.

The Vietnamese stock market was still positive compared to international exchanges and the short-term prospects were preserved, VNDS said.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was down 0.43 per cent to end at 102.81 points.

The northern market index was up a total of 0.88 per cent last week.

Nearly 22.3 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VND279 billion. — VNS