Shares on the HCM Stock Exchange finished on May 9's session down slightly as investors fearing a correction move to nail down profits. Meanwhile, share prices continued to advance on the Hanoi bourse.

On the HCM Stock exchange, the benchmark VN-Index lost 0.09 percent to close at 487.62 points – despite gainers outnumbering decliners by 159-108.

The value of trades declined 18 percent from May 8's level, totalling almost 1.83 billion VND (87.1 million USD), while volume declined 14 percent to 114 million shares.

The VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 leading shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, closed nearly unchanged at 557.35 points, with only eight codes in this group rallying. Of these real estate developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG), seafood processor Hung Vuong Corp (HVG), Sacombank (STB) and Sacombank Securities Co (SBS) rose to their ceiling prices.

Withouth positive news, Vietnam Electricity Construction Corp (VNE) surprised as the most-active share on the HCM City board, on a volume of 5.4 million shares. VNE rose 2.27 percent to settle at 9,000 VND per share.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index closed up by 0.14 percent to 83.76 points with 176 codes rallying and 120 declining. Both volume and value dropped by around 31 percent to 86.5 million shares, worth a total of nearly 986 billion VND (47 million USD).

Habubank (HBB) was again the most-active share, with 5.16 million shares changing hands, even as its share price declined by 2.3 percent to 6,600 VND.

Foreign investors remained net buyers on the HCM City bourse, picking up another 34.7 billion VND (1.7 million) worth of shares, but they turned out to be net sellers on the Hanoi market, unloading shares worth a net of over 10 billion VND (485,000 USD).-VNA