Shares plummeted in the first trading day after the week-long holiday break on the two exchanges on May 4, despite strong buys by the foreign sector.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost more than 17 points, or 3.08 percent to close yesterday's session at 545.08 points.

Blue chips no longer gave the market its momentum as the VN30, which tracks the 30 stocks with the highest market value and liquidity, also erased nearly 17 points, or 2.8 percent, to end the day at 576.52 points.

The red overwhelmed the electronic trading board with the number of declining stocks eight times higher than the number of advancing shares.

The foreign sector continued to collect shares in the two markets yesterday when picking another 237 billion VND (11 million USD) worth of shares on both exchanges.

A positive part of the trading was an improvement in liquidity.

Low valuation attracted bargain investors, with market volume reaching 112.5 million shares worth 1.774 trillion VND (82.1 million USD), up 80 percent in volume and 60 percent in value compared with the preceding trading day.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also dived 3.38 percent to finish the session at 79.95 points, while the HNX30, tracking the top 30 shares by liquidity, dropped 4.28 percent to close at 150.5 points.

The market conditions were also very negative here, as the losers overwhelmed the gainers by 187-32 while the other 147 remained steady.

Liquidity improved, with the market volume increasing 50 percent over the previous session to reach 59.2 million shares worth 646 billion VND (29.9 million USD), up 40 percent compared with the previous session's value.-VNA