Both benchmarks on the national exchanges closed Tuesday morning's session down, despite early gains. On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost 0.45 per cent to close at 432.31 points.


Losers outnumbered gainers by 135-74.
Market value, after remarkably reaching over VND1 trillion (US$51.5 million), plunged to VND336.1 billion ($16.3 million).
Of the ten leading shares by capitalisation, only software giant FPT (FPT) and food producer Masan Group (MSN) made gains of 0.8 and 1 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile Vietinbank (CTG), property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) slumped between 1-2.5 per cent.
Vinamilk share (VNM), which led the market yesterday, tumbled 2.7 per cent with just 78,000 shares exchanged.
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index dived 1.2 per cent to 74.71 points with 202 decliners.
However, trading value jumped 42.5 per cent over yesterday's session to VND418.5 billion ($2 million) on a volume of 35 million shares.