HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Trading continued to be sluggish, driving down shares on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, while the blue chips' rally retained its momentum on the HCM Stock Exchange.

In HCM City, the VN-Index added another 0.41 per cent to close the morning session at 561.83 points, while the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, increased 0.27 per cent to end at 591.35 points.

Bank shares were the largest gainers as most of the large-cap lenders posted gains, including the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Sacombank (STB).

BID and CTG were also the two most active stocks this morning, with more than two million shares being traded on each code.

BID ended at VND19,200 (US$0.89) per share, while CTG's price stood at VND18,300 ($0.85) each.

Liquidity drained as just 34.4 million shares, worth VND625.4 billion ($29 million), were exchanged by the end of the morning.

In the Ha Noi market, the HNX-Index closed almost unchanged at 82.65 points, as the losers were nearly double the number of gainers.

The market volume was as low as 19 million shares, worth VND246 billion ($11.4 million). FIT Investment Co (FIT) continued to lead the trading here, with 2.7 million of its shares being traded at VND14,200 per share.

The afternoon session will begin at 1pm. — VNS