Shares reversed gains made during the morning session to close down, with blue chips leading the downward trend on the HCM City Stock Exchange.

The benchmark VN-Index closed yesterday at just 391.36 points after reaching almost 393 points in the morning, off 0.09 per cent from the previous session.

The value of trades jumped 55 per cent, however, totalling VND454.3 billion (US$21.6 million) on a volume of nearly 29.8 million shares. Property developers Kinh Bac City Development (KBC) and Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) hit their ceiling prices after news that KBC chairman and ITA's major shareholder Dang Thanh Tam, also a lawmaker, appeared at the National Assembly meeting yesterday morning after a foreign trip. Previously, Tam asked to be excused from the NA meetings due to health problems, which led to KBC and ITA shares plummeting last week.

ITA was also the most active code on total trades of 2.58 million shares, settling at VND4,300 a share, while KBC closed yesterday at VND5,900 each.

Other blue chips declined, however. Half of the top 30 shares on the exchange sank, pushing the VN30 down 0.24 per cent to 461.03 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index was also down 0.28 per cent to finish yesterday at 53.64 points by the end of the session on decreased value of VND186.6 billion ($8.9 million), down 18.5 per cent from Friday's trading value.

Real estate firm Sacomreal (SCR) was the most active code on the northern bourse with 1.58 million shares changing hands, closing flat at VND5,500 a share. In addition, about 10.8 million SCR shares, worth VND58.2 billion ($2.8 million), were traded through negotiations. Recently, SCR chairman Dang Hong Anh registered to sell 21 million shares.

Up to October 19th, credit growth was at only 2.77 per cent whereas deposit growth reached over 14 per cent. Bad debt problems and unfavourable business conditions are the main factors worrying banks in lending to enterprises, said Pham Tien Dung, an analyst from Bao Viet Securities Co.

"The plan on establishing a corporation to buy up bad debt could solve the debt problem and is expected to facilitate capital flow in the economy. However, this expectation may need a long time to be realised," Dung wrote in a report, noting that businesses would continue to face difficulties such as high interest rates in the short term.

Foreign investors began to unload shares on the HCM City exchange yesterday, responsible for a net sell of VND3.26 billion ($156,000) worth of shares, but they remained net buyers in Ha Noi with a modest net buy of more than VND267 million ($13,000).