Stock continued to slide on June 4 as two third of shares lost value across the two bourses, led by blue chips.

Recent positive signals from the central bank failed to boost investor sentiment on June 4. The central bank late last week further cut the key interest rates by 1 percent and the cap on the deposit rate is expected to fall by another 2 percent to 9 percent per year in the near future. Besides, it plans to establish an assets trading company responsible for a total debt worth 100 trillion VND (4.76 billion USD), equal to total bad debts of the banking system by the end of April.

"The Government's monetary policies were on the right track," analysts of Sai Gon-Hanoi Securities Co commented in a research note but they also said investors now seemed to be more cautious and wanted wait for specific economic improvements.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index gave up over 12 points to close on June 4 at 416.65 points, down 2.83 percent from the previous session's value, the lowest since February 22.

Losers overwhelmed gainers by 237-29, with half of the losers bottomed out.

The VN30 Index, which measures performance of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity also decreased 2.8 percent to 492.89 pints, as all of the 30 codes sank, of which 12 shares plunged to the floor prices including the largest share Vietcombank (VCB).

Value of trades jumped 84 percent over June 1 to more than 2.44 trillion VND (116.2 million USD), while the trading volume doubled to 143.3 million shares. However, negotiated trades accounted for half of the total, led by Eximbank (EIB) with 60 million shares traded, worth 1 trillion VND (47.6 million USD) and Sacombank (STB) with 16 million shares traded worth 400 billion VND (19 million USD).

STB lost 2 percent to close on June 4 at 24,900 VND (1.19 USD) a share while EIB fell 1.1 percent to a close of 17,700 VND (0.84 USD) each.

Trades on these two shares at this time were mainly done by domestic investors. Rumours around the takeover between the two banks closed with two members of Eximbank gaining two seats in the Sacombank's boardroom.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index finished the June 4 session down 2.49 percent at 72.51 points on a turnover of 419.7 billion VND (20 million USD) as decliners outnumbered advancers by four-to-one.

Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) was the most active code on the Hanoi bourse with 4 million shares changing hands, slipping 4.76 percent to a close of 10,000 VND a share.

Foreign investors concluded on June 4 as net sellers on both exchanges, unloading shares worth a combined 134 billion VND (6.4 million USD). -VNA