Shares lost value by the end of this morning on both national stock exchanges when investors opted to sit it out.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index sank 0.22 per cent after three consecutive rising sessions this morning, closing at 429.82 points.

Only 16.4 million shares, worth about VND309 billion (US$14.7 million), changed hands, down 17 per cent in value from the yesterday morning's level.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 103-66, led by blue chips.

Large-cap shares tracked by the VN30 Index lost 0.5 per cent to 513.47 points.

Influential shares on the Index, such as PetroVietnam (PVF), dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), property developer VinGroup (VIC), Vietcombank (VCB) and Sacombank (STB), all declined from 0.4-2.6 per cent.
No shares saw trades in excess of one million shares on HCM City's bourse this morning and Phu My Fertiliser (DPM) became the most active stock with only 871,000 shares traded. DPM rose 1.3 per cent to VND39,100 ($1.86).

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also fell 0.24 per cent to 69.98 points on a total turnover of nearly VND191.4 billion ($9.1 million).

The HNX30 Index tracking the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity also slumped 0.12 per cent to 133.78 points.

Habubank (HBB) continued to be the most active code on trades of more than 3.3 million shares, closing flat at VND5,200 ($0.25) a share.

Today is the last trading for HBB. After tomorrow, HBB will be merged into Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) with the share swap ratio of one HBB exchanged for 0.75 SHB.
Trading will resume at 1pm.