Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index loses nearly 200 points since Trump’s tariff announcement

The VN-Index, which represents the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), has declined for three consecutive sessions by a total of 182.63 points, following U.S. President Trump’s announcement on 46% reciprocal tariffs on imports from Vietnam.

The major index plunged 77.88 points, or 6.43%, to 1,132.79 on Tuesday (April 8), losing all the gains made so far this year. Since the outset of 2025, the VN-Index has dropped by more than 10.64%.

Last Thursday, right after the Trump declaration, the VN-Index plummeted nearly 88 points, or 6.68%, to 1,229.84, marking the steepest drop in its history. The day later, the index continued to lose 19 points, or 1.56%, to 1,210.67.

Monday (April 7) saw no trading as it was a national holiday. On Tuesday, the HoSE had 506 falling stocks, with 254 hitting their floor prices. Over 1.16 billion shares changed hands for nearly VND25.3 trillion ($972.14 million), down more than 38.2% from Friday.

Some experts attributed the drop to widespread "forced selling" and margin calls in the market. In the morning session, many securities companies announced reducing margin ratios.

They added that information about the likelihood of the Vietnamese stock market status upgrade by FTSE Russell this September (according to Bloomberg) did not help the VN-Index avoid a steep decline in this session.

The VN30 index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest stocks on the HoSE, lost over 83 points or 6.48%. All 30 tickers dropped, with 24 hitting their floor prices with no buyers.

All stock groups experienced decreases with the hardest hit being telecommunications (-12.47%), industrial goods and services (-9.44%), resources (-8.25%), oil and gas (-7.92%), and financial services (-7.23%).

Foreign investors remained net sellers to the tune of VND1.7 trillion ($65.32 million) on the HoSE, focusing on stocks such as MBB of MBBank, VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes, FPT of tech giant FPT Corp., and STB of Sacombank.

The HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange plunged 7.34% to 201.04, while the UPCoM-Index on the Unlisted Public Companies Market dropped 7.28% to 84.5.