Vietnamese shares gained slightly on Monday morning amid moderate trading liquidity and investor caution still lingered following the latest update on China-US trade tension.

US President Donald Trump warned on Friday he was ready to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports into the US, threatening duties on another US$267 billion of goods on top of $200 billion in imports primed for levies in the coming days.

The moves would sharply escalate Trump’s trade war with Beijing over his demands for major changes in economic, trade and technology policy.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange inched up 0.54 per cent to close at 974.14 points. It had fallen total 2.08 per cent last week.

The HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange was up 0.04 per cent to end at 111.74 points. It had dropped nearly 1 per cent last week.

More than 127.3 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND2 trillion (US$91 million).

The large-cap VN30 Index gained 0.21 per cent to stand at 947.61 points.

Among gainers were dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), insurer Bảo Việt Holdings (BVH), banker HDBank (HDB), real estate developer Vingroup (VIC) and its affiliate Vinhomes (VHM).

On a sector basis, real estate, mining, banking and insurance companies were the main driving factors for the stock market on Monday morning.

The four industry indices were up 2 per cent, 1.7 per cent, nearly 1 and 2.5 per cent, respectively.

Other sectors that also performed well included retail and food and beverages.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. – VNS