Investors monitor share movements at the Ha Noi Stock Exchange. Indexes in both Ha Noi and HCM City declined yesterday . — VNS Photo Thai Ha

The decline, mainly of blue chips, dragged the market down as only four of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity advanced while up to 23 stocks tumbled.

Many shares rose in the morning but fell in the afternoon. Among these were, FPT Corp (FPT) down 1.9 per cent, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) down 1.7 per cent and Masan Group (MSN) down 1.6 per cent. Vinamilk (VNM) went down by 0.7 per cent.

The VN30 was down 0.72 per cent to end at 641.96 points.

One of the biggest lenders on the HCM City's market, the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), announced cash dividends at the rate of 8.5 per cent to shareholders. This information helped push its share price up 3.4 per cent to close at VND15,300 per share.

Trading was good with nearly 100 million shares and fund certificates worth VND1.68 trillion (US$79.6 million) exchanged by the end of the session, up 10 per cent over Thursday's value.

Real estate FLC Group (FLC) again led the market in terms of volume with 13.4 million shares, rising 0.8 per cent to close at VND12,600 a share.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index widened this week's loss by another 1.23 per cent to end yesterday at 79.43 points.

The HNX30 also dived 2.12 per cent to close at 159.09 points.

Trading decreased against Thursday as the market volume fell 10 per cent to nearly 41 million shares worth over VND521 billion ($24.7 million), down 15 per cent from the previous session.

PetroVietnam Construction Corp (PVX) was the most active code on total trades of nearly 4 million shares, closing flat at VND4,400 per share.

Foreign investors remained net buyers on both markets yesterday but their net buy values halved on Thursday, totalling nearly VND56 billion ($2.7 million). — VNS