Most Southeast Asian stock markets traded higher on Monday, with Vietnam leading the pack, on hopes of a Sino-US trade deal after US President Donald Trump pushed back the planned increase in tariffs on Chinese imports from March 1.
Trump on Sunday tweeted that “substantial progress” had been made in trade talks with China over the weekend.
Trump did not set a new deadline for the talks to conclude, but told US state governors gathered at the White House that there could be “very big news over the next week or two” if all went well in the negotiations.
“This is likely to give market a relief in trade concerns, but US-China confrontation in trades and technology remains a mid-to-long term theme due to its complexity and significant impact to global economy,” Margaret Yang Yan, a market analyst at CMC Markets Singapore, wrote in a note.
“Lack of details on what so called ‘significant progress’ came in the last two rounds of talks, it is hard to convince people that the worst is over on the negotiation table,” she added.
China is the biggest trading partner of the Southeast Asian region.
The Vietnam index climbed as much as 1.1% to its highest level since Oct 9 in early trade, and was poised to extend gains for a sixth consecutive session, buoyed by financial stocks. The benchmark was trading 0.6% higher at 0417 GMT.
Moody’s Investor Services said banks in Vietnam will achieve a further improvement in profitability, owing to wider net interest spreads and lower credit costs.
The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade Of Viet Nam, Vietnam’s largest listed bank climbed 1.3%, while Vingroup JSC, the country’s top listed firm by market value, added 0.3%.
– Reuters.