Shares continued to advance on the HCM City Stock Exchange this morning, with the benchmark VN-Index rising another 0.73 per cent to 433.98 points.

The top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity tracked by the VN30 Index also rose 0.23 per cent to an average of 515.66 points.

Trading value improved over yesterday, reaching almost VND493 billion (US$23.5 million).
Shares of PV Gas (GAS) were bought strongly this morning following the news that the security was added to the MSCI Frontier Index, which represents 98 per cent of the market capitalisation of 31 "frontier" markets, behind the developed and emerging markets. Vietnam is one of the four Asian countries with stocks included in the Index.

More than 2.2 million GAS shares were traded this morning, making GAS the most active share on the southern bourse. It edged up 3.7 per cent to close at VND41,600 ($1.98).

Eximbank (EIB) was the second most active stock on the HCM City bourse on trades of around 1.3 million shares exchanged, rising 0.5 per cent to VND20,200 ($0.96) a share.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also closed 0.14 per cent higher at over 70 points, but the value of trades remained sluggish at just VND150.7 billion ($7.2 million).
However, decliners outnumbered advancers by 88-62.

Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) became the most active this morning with over 2 million shares changing hands, but the shares slipped over 16 per cent to just VND7,800 ($0.37) a share.
Shares of Habubank (HBB) is officially delisted from the Ha Noi bourse today and will be swapped with SHB at the ratio of 0.75:1. Meanwhile, SHB's shareholders will receive 0.21 additional SHB shares for each share they own.

SHB shares are allowed to fluctuate around 25 per cent today compared to the daily 7 per cent limit as regulated by the watchdog. Today is also the SHB's ex-date, the date on which SHB shares are traded without enjoying additional share distribution.

Trading will resume at 1pm.