Blue chips advanced on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, lifting the HNX-30 Index by 0.28 percent to 105.10 points, even as the bourse's benchmark HNX-Index declined by 0.7 percent overall on September 19 to close at just 56.07 points.

The value of trades spiked to 805.9 billion VND (38.3 million USD), over three times the previous day's figures, as volume totalled 67.3 million shares.

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), the centre of a recent scandal, saw brisk activity yesterday before bottoming out at 15,900 VND per share. Nearly 3.9 million ACB shares changed hands through order matching, with 32.94 million shares traded just before 2pm of the day via negotiation method for 16,000 VND per share – a transaction that represented over 3.6 percent of the bank's charter capital.

Shares on the HCM Stock Exchange managed to post modest gains during the final minutes of the session, enabling the VN-Index to close flat at 394.55 points. Driven by heavy sales, however, the value of trades improved over the previous session to 697 billion VND (33 million USD).

The decline of nearly half of the market's 30 leading shares by capitalisation and liquidity sent the VN30-Index down by 0.7 percent to 457.13 points.

Among blue chips managing to post gains were insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Phu My Fertilisers (DPM), steelmakers Hoa Phat (HPG) and Hoa Sen (HSG), Military Bank (MBB) and property developer Vingroup (VIC).

Foreign investors were net sellers in HCM City, unloading shares worth 10.7 billion VND (500,000 USD) but they were buyers in Hanoi by a margin of 15.7 billion VND (747,600 USD).-VNA