Investors continued to shun the stock market, driving down shares on both national exchanges.

The benchmark VN-Index on the HCM City Stock Exchange declined to 394.5 points by the end of this morning's session, after reaching nearly 397 points.

Trading remained sluggish, totalling (US$16.2 million) on a volume of 17.3 million shares.
Blue chips were mixed. Shares of software giant FPT corporation (FPT) jumped 3.2 per cent to VND38,200 ($1.82) following the news yesterday that Truong Gia Binh returned to his seat of general director of the corporation after the resignation of CEO Truong Dinh Anh.

Diary producer Vinamilk (VNM) also rose 1.7 per cent to VND118,000 ($5.62).

On the other end of spectrum, property developers VinGroup (VIC) and Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), along with PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), lost value.

Telecom equipment producer SACOM (SAM) was the most active code this morning, with 1.4 million shares changing hands. SAM climbed 1.5 per cent to VND6,600 a share.

The VN30, which measures the performance of the top 30 shares was up 0.09 per cent to 459.8 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined another 0.85 per cent to 55.81 points on a reduced turnover of VND71 billion ($3.4 million).

VNDirect Securities (VND) became the most active code on trades of 2.26 million shares, edging down 4.3 per cent to VND8,800 a share.

Trading was to resume at 1pm.