Stocks fell further in the September 15 afternoon session. The benchmark VN-Index lost 2.16 points, or 0.34 percent, to close at 630.34 points as investors increased selling to lock-in profits.

Blue chips lost momentum as the VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, declined 0.2 percent to end at 668.42 points. A total of 17 codes decreased while 11 others rose.

Oil and gas and seafood shares were the biggest gainers on the day. Many hit ceiling prices, such as PetroVietnam Drilling & Well Services (PVD), Petrovietnam Transportation Corp (PVT), An Pha Petrol Co (ASP) - and PetroVietNam Low Pressure Gas Distribution (PGD).

Money is pouring into seafood following the news that Vietnam's tra fish will be allowed into Russia now that customs rules have been relaxed.

Liquidity on the HCM Stock Exchange soared with more than 212 million shares worth 4 trillion VND (nearly 190 million USD) being traded by the end of the session.

FLC Group (FLC) led the market in terms of volume with a whopping 50.5 million shares, of which foreign buys contributed 4.5 million shares. However the share price fell 0.81 percent to close at 12,300 VND per share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also inched down 0.09 percent to finish the session at 89.41 points.

Liquidity also increased. Nearly 121 million shares worth 1.7 trillion VND (80.6 million USD) were exchanged.

PetroVietnam Construction Corp (PVX) was the most active there on total trades of nearly 15 million shares, plunging 1.6 percent to end at 6,300 VND a share.

Foreign investors were mixed. They were net sellers in HCM City, picking up shares worth 65.29 billion VND (6.2 million USD). They also concluded as net sellers on the Hanoi exchange with a net sell value of 31 billion VND (1.5 million USD).-VNA