The VN-Index ended its run of four consecutive upward sessions yesterday, falling 2.64 points to close at 382.07 points one day before the State Securities Commission was set to loosen the trading band by 1 percentage point at both bourses.

Over 22 million shares were traded with a total capital of VND684.99 billion (US$42.8 million). There were 20 gainers, 126 losers and 9 remained unchanged.

The VN-Index decrease was attributed to the large volume of shares sold by short-term investors who wanted to regroup their capital and continue tracking the market trend. Trading volume set a record against March 10, 2008.

Blue chip stocks including STB, SSI, FPT and PPC and HPG all hit their price ceiling.

Heavily-traded stocks included Vinamilk (VNM) and Kinh Do Corporation (KDC), both hit their ceilings after rising VND1,500 to stand at VND95,000 per share and VND78,500 per share respectively. The Tan Tao Industrial Corporation (ITA) rose VND1,000 to close at VND72,000 per share.

Sacombank (STB) was the most active share with 5.5 million shares changing hands. It was followed by Phu My Fertiliser (DMP) with more than 2.8 million shares traded and Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) with over 2 million shares traded, while the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT) moved 645,410 shares.

Foreign investors were net buyers with a sale volume of 6.1 million shares worth over VND243 billion.

Vu Dang Khoa of VPBank Securities attributed yesterday's market decrease to investor psychology after hearing that the State Securities Commission would loosen the trading band for both the HOSE and HASTC bourses.

Many investors decided that the long downward trend had finally bottomed out and so started drawing their deposits from savings banks and returning to securities firms.

In Hanoi, the HASTC-Index was down 2.01 points to end the day at 113.94 points, with a high volume of 8.52 million shares changing hands. More than 19 million shares were traded with a total value of over VND1trillion.