Bourse records steepest session decline in 3 months

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange's (HoSE) session losses generally had not exceeded 0.5 percent since August 26 which saw a 0.96 percent decline.

Overall, on the HoSE, 132 stocks gained and 197 stocks lost at the end of Monday’s session.

This is the index’s fifth losing session in a row, and eighth losing session since it peaked at 1024.91 points two weeks ago.

Blue-chips and banking stocks were the biggest drag on the VN-Index this session, with the VN30-Index, which represents Vietnam’s 30 highest market cap stocks, falling 0.69 percent to 920.95 points.

VNM shares of Vinamilk, Vietnam’s biggest dairy company, and VCB shares of Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders, saw the biggest drops among the 30 blue-chips, having fallen 2.2 and 2.1 percent respectively.

VIC shares of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup fell 1.5 percent, while VHM shares of its real estate subsidiary Vinhomes and VRE of its retail arm Vincom Retail closed at the same starting price.

FPT shares of tech giant FPT fell 1.1 percent, followed by PNJ of Phu Nhuan Jewelry and BID of state-owned lender BDIV at 1.1 and 0.9 percent respectively.

Shares in bigger mid-sized lenders such as VPB (VPBank), STB (Sacombank), MBB (Military Bank), and EIB (Eximbank) also each fell under 0.5 percent this session.

On the other hand, oil and gas and industrial zone stocks continued to gain slightly.

By the end of Monday, the HNX-Index, which represents a separate market for smaller and mid-cap stocks, fell 0.83 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for unlisted public companies fell 0.05 percent.

According to Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the price of banking stocks declined as many banks simultaneously reduced interest rates Monday. 

Unlike previous rate adjustments, the changes took place on a large scale, at both state-owned banks and smaller, private banks. While the most common decreases range from 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points, Vietcombank reduced its rates by 0.5 percentage points. 

The banks are cutting interest rates in accordance with the government’s orientation of reducing rates by 0.5 percentage points in 2020, given abundant capital liquidity in the banks themselves, BVSC said.

In Asia, indices of major stock markets mostly closed higher as investors watched for U.S.-China trade updates. China’s Shanghai composite rose 0.62 percent and Shenzen composite 0.72 percent.

Amid its social turmoil, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.35 percent, and Japans Nikkei 225 added 0.49 percent.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke on the phone Saturday morning with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer regarding a "phase-one" trade deal, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported over the weekend.

Last week, U.S. White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow had said that the two economic powerhouses were "getting close" to a deal.