A plunge in the value of shares of Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) weighed down stock indices on Dec. 29 and stoked investor concerns over year-end trends.

"SSI shares are among the major stocks heavily impacted by market moves," said Hanoi broker Nguyen Van Quy. "It is also among the group of securities stocks which achieved some of the most impressive gains the day before."

A sell-off of SSI began as soon as the shares hit a five-month high of 33,000 VND. A wave of profit-taking spread to other stocks, driving down 145 out of 230 listed shares on the HCM Stock Exchange. SSI closed off 1.2 percent on a heavy volume of 3.6 million shares.

The VN-Index ended the session down 0.12 percent to 478.75 points. The volume of trades fell 30.4 percent from Dec. 28 to 61.9 million shares, worth 1.4 trillion VND (66.7 million USD).

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined by 1.64 percent to 112.93 points, with losers outperforming advancers by 199-106. Volume remained high at 50.7 million shares, worth 1.1 trillion VND (52.8 million USD).

Securities stocks fell by 1.4 percent overall on both exchanges, Quy said, with only VNDirect Securities (VND) and Kim Long Securities (KLS) – the most active stock of Hanoi market, with 7.3 million shares traded – closing flat.

"The brisk at trading volume, especially in Hanoi , meant an existence of hot money inflows, which could create a turnaround in the final days of the year," Quy said.

Le Cong, an analyst with the financial services provider Stoxplus Corporation, said that market correction could drive sentiment in the next two sessions, but, with all major economic data released, the market was unlikely to see any big changes.

Foreign investors increased their sales on both exchanges, unloading nearly 8 million shares, while buys remained strong at 7.1 million./.