VN-Index drops below 1,000-point benchmark

The index, which represents stocks on Vietnam’s main bourse, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), dropped 12.67 points, dragged by real estate stocks.

193 stocks on HoSE lost this session, with only 114 posting gains. On the VN-30, Vietnam’s 30 biggest market cap stocks, 29 blue-chips fell and one kept its opening price.

The VN-30 Index dropped 19 points, or 2.05 percent, to 898.23 points at the end of the session.

SAB shares of Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco recorded the heaviest loss on the VN30 this session, falling 5.3 percent, followed by TRA of pharmacy giant Traphaco, down 3.7 percent, and MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, down 3.6 percent.

The Vingroup trio, which are shares related to Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, also registered a negative session. VIC shares of parent company Vingroup, VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes, and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail fell 0.7 percent, 0.9 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

According to analysts at FPTS Securities, the plunge on Vietnam’s stock market followed similar movements on Wall Street and Asian markets amid growing worries over the possible delay of a preliminary trade deal between the U.S. and China.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined about 1.5 percent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.48 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.35 percent.

Mainland Chinese stocks also fell slightly, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.25 percent and the Shenzhen Component down 0.35 percent. In the U.S., the S&P 500 also fell 0.38 percent.