Shares reversed the November 11 gains to tumble on both stock exchanges on November 12 as investors sold off penny and mid-cap stocks.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index slid 0.68 percent to 497.65 points. Losers overwhelmed gainers by 128-87.

The value of trades jumped by roughly 47 percent over the November 11 session to 1.47 trillion VND (69.3 million USD). Trading volume also surged to nearly 122 million shares.

Profit-taking occurred to a series of small stocks. FLC Investment Group (FLC) hit its ceiling price in the morning session but finally closed at 1.9 percent.

Other construction and real estate stocks, including Tan Tao (ITA), An Duong Thao Dien (HAR), Hoang Quan (HQC) and Licogi 16 (LCG), saw high trading volume between 4-8 million shares. However, many of these codes ultimately retreated.

Two-thirds of the 30 leading shares in terms of capitalisation and liquidity tracked by the VN30 ended in the red. Notably, financial conglomerate Ocean Group (OGC), PetroVietnam Drilling Services (PVD), Becamex Infrastructure (IJC) and logistics company Gemadept (GMD) each lost 2-5 percent. The VN30 dropped almost 0.8 percent, to 555.11 points.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined 0.3 percent to 63.85 points. Blue chips dragged the HNX30 more than 1 percent lower to 120.12 points. Massive sales drove market value up 32.3 percent to 456.5 billion VND (21.5 million USD) on a volume of 66.1 million shares.

Although foreign investors were net buyers in Hanoi by over 7 billion VND (330,100 USD), they could not offset the net selling value of 47.8 billion VND (2.2 million USD) in Ho Chi Minh City.

Foreign investors mostly unloaded blue chips such as private equity group Masan (MSN) and property developers Vingroup (VIC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and ITA.

Economic information such as the small reduction in fuel prices did not affect the market.-VNA