Shares continued to retreat on both national exchanges on Oct. 25 even as a number of companies reported higher profits in the first nine months of this year.

"Even though global markets rallied overnight, domestic investors need more supportive information than positive earnings reports," said Vietcombank Securities Co analyst Tran Minh Hoang.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the benchmark HNX-Index fell by 1 percent to close at 67.72 points, with over half of all listed shares sinking into the red. The value of trades dropped 13.4 percent from Oct. 24's figure, totalling just 234.6 billion VND (11.2 million USD) on a volume of 23.9 million shares.

Phuong Dong (Orient) Securities Co (ORS) was the most notable on the Hanoi bourse, plunging to just 3,000 VND per share over the past two sessions. Speculators had favoured this share after the company reported more than 1 trillion VND (47.8 million USD) in cash on hand. However, it still reported a loss of 6.5 billion VND (311,000 USD) for the first three quarters of the year, causing investors to dump more than a million ORS shares on Oct. 25 morning.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index declined by 1.23 percent to close out Oct. 25's trading at 409.38. The value of trades rose by 11 percent from the previous session's level to over 385 billion VND (18.4 million USD), on a volume of 22.4 million shares.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 153-67. Of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation, only Eximbank (EIB) and Sacombank (STB) posted gains on the day.

Food processor Masan Group (MSN), a backbone of the VN-Index, was the main culprit in dragging down the Index, losing 3.1 percent on Oct. 25 despite posting a nine-month profit of 1.8 trillion VND (86.1 million USD), an increase of 88 percent over the same period last year.

Becamex Infrastructure Co (IJC), the most-active code in HCM City with 1.4 million shares traded – also closed down 2 percent to 10,000 VND per share, despite releasing positive business results for the first nine months on Oct. 25. IJC earned 486 billion VND (23.3 million USD) during the period, triple the previous year's figure, and posted a profit of 132.7 billion VND (6.3 million USD), an increase of 70 percent. The results, however, accounted for only 31 percent of the company's earnings target for the year and 43 percent of its profit target.

Foreign investors concluded the day on Oct. 25 as net buyers on both stock exchanges, picking a combined net of 7.35 billion VND (352,00 USD) worth of shares. /.