The benchmark VN-Index on Monday posted its worst one-day performance in four years, slipping more than five percent with nearly 600 shares taking a tumble.

The VN-Index closed Monday 5.1 percent lower than the previous day at 1,048.71 points, losing 56.33 points, the worst plunge since 2014.

The Vietnamese stock market thus saw nearly US$8 billion worth of capitalization vanish into thin air, with 571 different stocks closing in the red.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) saw 269 shares decline. In addition, 184 shares on the northern exchange, HXN, slipped on Monday. The Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) exchange saw 112 stocks skid.

Experts attributed the market plunge to the fall of a number of blue chip stocks, some of which, including GAS, BVH, MSN and PLX, have also plunged.

Blue chip stocks are those of well-known and highly respected publicly-traded companies, which are usually financially sound and are thought to be relatively low-risk investments.

The impact of these strong shares on Vietnam’s major stock indices was so large that the whole market tumbled at the end of the day.

Vietnam’s stock market began declining last weekend, with the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting by more than 600 points amid fears among global investors of a possible interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve System.

On Monday, U.S. stocks suffered their worst fall in more than six years.

By the day’s end, the S&P 500 index was off 4.1 percent at 2,648.94 – the worst fall since August 2011, while the Dow Jones closed 1,175 points or 4.6 percent, lower and the Nasdaq fell 3.8 percent to 6,967.

The slide in Vietnam’s stock market continued at Tuesday’s opening session, with VN-Index losing 65.16 points to 983 points, the lowest since the beginning of this year.

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