Holiday sentiment led to a sleepy day's trading on the nation's two stock exchanges on April 8.

In HCM City , trading volume fell 26.2 percent from April 7 to 20.3 million shares, totalling 464.7 billion VND (22.1 million USD). Vietnam Mechanisation Electrification & Construction Co (MCG) was the most active stock with 1.5 million shares changing hands.

Both stock markets will close on April 11 and 12 for the Hung Kings anniversary, and trading will resume on April 6.

Blue chips performed well which helped the VN-Index counter an earlier correction to close 0.17 percent up at 464.29 points.

Gainers included Phu My Fertilisers (DPM) up 0.3 percent, property developer Vincom (VIC) up 0.8 percent, VietinBank (CTG) and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM) up 1 percent each, PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) up 2 percent and Masan Group (MSN) up 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile Eximbank (EIB), steel producer Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and software producer FPT Corp (FPT) closed unchanged. Only three major stocks lost points, with Sai Gon Securities Inc (SSI) down 1.3 percent, insurer Bao VIet Holdings (BVH) down 1.3 percent and Sacombank (STB) down 1.4 percent.

On the Hanoi market, the HNX-Index fell for the second day, this time by 0.51 percent to finish at 90.26 points.

Volume was low with only 17 million shares changing hands worth 257.5 billion VND (12.3 million USD).

Foreign investors concluded the session as net buyers. They picked up a combined total of 2.1 million shares from both markets, worth a total of nearly 57 billion VND (2.7 million USD)./.