Vietnamese shares struggled on Monday following the decline of the Chinese market while blue chips continued to suffer from strong net foreign selling.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange was almost flat, gaining 0.07 per cent to end at 960.23 points. It gained 2.57 per cent last week.

The southern bourse had risen as much as 0.35 per cent earlier in the day.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange fell 0.61 per cent to end at 105.60 points. The northern market index was up a total of 0.52 per cent last week.

More than 267 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND5.77 trillion (US$256.4 million).

Declining stocks were dominant on the market, outnumbering gainers by 246 to 167.

According to BIDV Securities Company (BSC), the negative moves of the two indices on Monday were attributed to the escalating trade tension between China and the US, which stunned the Chinese market during the day.

China last Friday announced plans for $60 billion worth of tariffs on US imports and its officials were pessimistic about the prospects of talks with Washington to resolve the conflict.

Net foreign selling was another factor that dampened local market sentiment, according to BSC.

Foreign investors on Monday net-sold VND340 billion. They posted a total net sell value of VND920 billion last week.

Foreign selling focused on property developer Vingroup (VIC), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) and high-end real estate firm Vinhomes (VHM).

VIC and VHM ended flat on Monday. VIC had gained a total of 4.8 per cent in the previous three sessions while VHM rose a total of 0.4 per cent in the previous two days.

Meanwhile, VNM fell 1 per cent to extend its total decline to 6.7 per cent since July 27.

Other underperforming industries included insurance, securities, energy and retail.

On the opposite side, bank stocks were among the sectors that kept the two bourses from falling deeper on Monday.

The banking sector index gained 0.4 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed. The industry was driven by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Eximbank (EIB), Sacombank (STB) and Vietcombank (VCB).

“Banks still offer opportunities for investors following their first-half earnings reports,” said Nguyen Hong Khanh, analyst at Vietnam International Securities JSC (VIS).

Among other sectors that saw stock prices increase were healthcare and pharmaceuticals, plastic and rubber production and seafood processing. – VNS