Investors opted out of the market this morning, watching stocks fall on both national stock exchanges.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange lost 0.66 per cent to close the session at 411.75 points.

Trading was sluggish with just 15 million shares, worth VND235.5 billion (US$11.2 million), exchanged, down 20.4 per cent in value from yesterday morning.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 151-49, led by blue chips.

Of the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, 26 lost ground, while only one advanced and three closed flat.

Only logistics company Gemadept Corp (GMD) finished the session in the black, closing up 1.4 per cent at VND21,300 ($1.01).

No codes saw trades in excess of one million shares. Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) with nearly 633,000 shares traded was the most active stock, but it declined 1.5 per cent to end this morning at VND20,300 ($0.97).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index fell another 1.06 per cent to close at 68.46 points on a total value of just VND152 billion ($7.2 million).

The HNX30 Index also dropped 1.57 per cent to close at 128.86 points.
Losers nearly tripled gainers.

VNDirect Securities (VND) was still the most active code on the Ha Noi market with more than 2 million shares changing hands, but still fell 2.8 per cent to finish at VND10,600 ($0.52).

Trading will resume at 1pm