Strong selling pressure in blue-chip stocks led the market decline this afternoon. The VN30-Index, a basket for 30 of Vietnam’s biggest market cap stocks, fell 1.46 percent.

The prevailing negative sentiment was mostly the result of global factors, analysts said. On Sunday, China’s yuan weakened beyond 7 per dollar, hitting a new all-time low as the U.S.-China trade war escalates after President Donald Trump slapped 10 percent tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports, Reuters reported.

Vietnam’s two highest market cap stocks, VIC of the country’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup, fell 3.67 percent, and VHM of the group’s real estate arm Vinhomes fell 5.54 percent. VRE of Vingroup’s subsidiary Vincom Retail also fell 3.45 percent.

Leading stocks across most sectors also declined. VNM of Vinamilk fell 1.61 percent, GAS of state-owned PetroVietnam Gas, 1.89 percent, MSN of food giant Masan group, 2.78 percent, and VCB of Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest banks, 2.15 percent.

Smaller stocks in securities, banking, and oil and gas sectors also registered declines, but by lower percentages than their blue-chip peers.

However, investors continued to scoop up stocks related to military-owned telecom giant Viettel (VTP, VGI, VTK, CTR), while general gains in manufacturing sector stocks kept the market from falling further.

In Hanoi, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange fell 0.77 percent, while the Upcom-Index for unlisted public companies fell 0.38 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers of nearly VND300 billion ($13 million) on all exchanges, an approximate 50 percent increase over last Friday’s net sales figure.