Shares on the nation's stock exchanges on Oct.3 picked up where they left off at the end of last week and continued to decline.

SME Securities Co analysts said that third-quarter earnings reports will be one of the primary factors influencing investor pyschology this month. If results of companies with shares that are already highly attractive to speculators, such as securities and financial shares or real estate developers, exceed expectations, the market could enter another rising phase, they said.

On the HCM Stock Exchange, the VN-Index lost another 1.28 percent of its value from the previous session on Sept.30 to conclude the day at 422.12 points. The value of trades also declined by 61 percent from Sept.30, reaching just 495 billion VND (23.8 million USD ) on a volume of only 29.5 million shares.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 184-48. Eight of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation lost value, with insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) plunging to its floor price. In this group of shares, only Sacombank (STB), up 1.8 percent, and dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), up 0.8 percent, managed gains.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also fell by 1.35 percent to finish the day at 70.38 points. Trades remained sluggish, with just 36.7 million shares traded, worth about 363.5 billion VND (17.5 million USD). Losers outnumbered gainers by 211-59.

Kim Long Securities (KLS), the most-active share nationwide, saw 3.6 million shares traded but lost 3.4 percent of its value to close at 11,400 VND per share.

Foreign investors were net buyers on both exchanges with a combined 9 billion VND (432,700 USD) worth of shares. However, in the past month, they were net sellers of a total of 1 trillion VND (48 million USD)./.