A wave of profit-taking swamped gains by major shares early in the Nov. 23 session on the HCM Stock Exchange and sent the VN-Index into a sharp decline.

The Index ended the day down 3.34 percent to 537.29 points, while trading remained active. Market value reached 2.37 trillion VND (131.6 million USD) on a volume of 47.85 million shares.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also shed over 3 percent of its value to close at 179.13. The value of the day’s trades totalled 958.8 billion VND (53.3 million USD) on a volume of 22.8 million shares.

With interest rates tending to increase, and brokerages less willing to lend money for securities trading, a major source of capital for securities trading had been choked off, suggested analysts from Dai Viet Securities Co.

Eurocapital Securities predicted the market would brighten before the weekend and was suggesting professional investors participate in the market now.

A survey by online newspaper vnexpress.net showed that 48 percent of respondents planned to inject half of their capital into securities this week while 20 percent had no plan to join in. Over 27 percent would buy in if trading kept rallied early this week.