Stocks eked out a small rise on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on September 11 afternoon thanks to strong gains by seafood, oil and gas companies.

The VN-Index inched up just 0.03 percent to close at 628.99 points as gainers almost doubled decliners.

Blue chips dragged down the market, however, with half of the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity losing value, pushing the VN30 down 0.2 percent to end the session at 665.09 points.

Liquidity remained good. Market value increased slightly compared with the previous session, totaling 2.577 trillion VND (122.1 million USD), but the volume of trades declined 10 percent to 129.4 million shares.

Oil and gas stocks were the biggest gainers as many of this group hit the ceiling price on September 11, including Petroleum Industrial & Civil Construction (PXI), Petroleum Pipeline and Tank Construction (PXT), PVC Petro Capital & Infrastructure Investmen (PTL), IDICO - Petroleum Trading Construction Investment (PXL) and Petroleum Equipment Assembly & Metal Structure (PXS).

Money poured into seafood stocks. Hung Vuong Corp (HVG), Long An Food Processing Export (LAF), Ca Mau Frozen Seafood Processing Import Export (CMX) and An Giang Fisheries Import Export (AGF) and Cuu Long Fish (ACL) each climbed from 5-7 percent.

Despite gains on September 11, the market would likely see a correction as the Index had risen for three months and many stocks had gained substantial value, said Tran Hoang Son, Market Strategy chief at MB Securities Company.

"I think it's necessary to have a correction so that share prices can fall to reasonable levels to attract new money flow," Son said, noting that oil and gas shares had risen significantly and would be risky in the short term.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index added another 0.63 percent to finish the session at 88.41 points while the HNX30 increased 0.81 percent to stand at 181.75 points.

Liquidity declined slightly with trading volume totaling nearly 75 million shares worth 1.024 trillion VND (48.5 million USD), down 10 percent in volume and 20 percent in value against September 10.

Hot stocks like PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate Co (SCR) and Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) continued to lead the market with each having 5-7 million shares traded.

Foreign investors concluded as net sellers on the two markets on September 11. They were responsible for a combined net sell value of nearly 57 billion VND (2.7 million USD).-VNA