Shares continued to climb on the HCM City Stock Exchange this morning but the slump of several blue chips restrained the market rise.

The benchmark VN-Index increased 0.83 per cent to stand at 510.85 points with more than 34.2 million shares, worth VND666.25 billion (US$31.7 million), changed hands by the end of the morning.

Financial and bank shares started to decline with Eximbank (EIB), Vietinbank (CTG), Sacombank (STB), PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) falling from 0.5-1.8 per cent.

However, gains of some other heavyweight shares supported the market with rises of over 3 per cent for dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) and software producer FPT Corp (FPT).

The VN30 tracking the top 30 shares by market capitalisation and liquidity was up 0.45 per cent overall at 577.63 points.

Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) is temporarily leading the market's trades with 2.3 million shares exchanged, rising 2.2 per cent to be traded at VND18,900 ($0.90) a share.

Meanwhile on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged down 0.16 per cent at 61.26 points on the trading value of VND191.4 billion ($9.1 million).

Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB) continued to be the most active code on the northern bourse with trades of nearly 4.8 million shares but slid 1.4 per cent to be traded at VND7,200 a share.

The afternoon trading will resume at 1pm