Shares on the HCM Stock Exchange plunged for a second day on Nov. 1, with the VN-Index losing another 1.66 percent to close at 413.82 points.

"More investors decided to realise short-term profits after last week's rally," said an investor with a Hanoi-based securities company. The market lacked positive news but was weighed down by negative information, particularly rising bad debt levels among banks and growing uncertainty on the real estate market, he said.

The total value of trades on the HCM City exchange, including both order matching and negotiated transactions, rose 24 percent over Monday's session to 721.6 billion VND (34.4 million USD), with nearly 44.9 million shares changing hands.

However, up to 46 percent of this total value, or 332 billion VND (15.8 million USD), was generated by negotiation transactions. In particular, nearly 12.5 million shares of Sacombank (STB) were sold at a negotiated price of 14,000 VND (0.67 USD) per share.

Sacombank has the lowest level of bad bebt among the eight listed banks on both stock exchanges. By the end of October, its bad debt had risen just 0.6 percent over the end of last year to 460 billion VND (21.9 million USD). Meanwhile, the bad debts of all eight listed banks totalled 15 trillion VND (714.3 million USD), accounting for an average of 2 percent of their total outstanding loans.

Making its debut yesterday, Military Bank (MBB) failed to satisfy investor expectations. MBB closed at its reference price of just 13,800 USD per share after climbing to 14,500 VND. However, with over 2.7 million units traded, it was the most-active share on the HCM City market and became the 11th leading share by capitalisation, representing 2.13 percent of total market capitalisation.

Overall, 67 percent of codes lost ground and a decline in blue chips weighed heavily on the VN-Index.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, shares failed to sustain Monday's rising momentum, with the HNX-Index closing down 2.4 percent to 68.52 points. The value of trades dropped 39.8 percent over Monday to just 396 billion VND (18.9 million USD), while trading volume was also down 38 percent to just 37.2 million shares.

VNDirect Securities (VND) surpassed Kim Long Securities (KLS) by 200,000 shares to lead the Hanoi market in terms of volume with 5.4 million shares traded.

Foreign investors concluded on Nov. 1 as net buyers on both exchanges, picking up a combined 12 billion VND (571,400 USD) worth of shares./.