National stocks declined slightly on January 29, despite international financial organisations issuing a positive outlook for the Vietnamese economy.

Standard Chartered Bank predicted Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) growing at the rate of 6 percent, 0.2 percent higher than its previous forecast.

The consumer confidence index in January compiled by ANZ Bank, fell slightly to 135.4 points, but was still above the 2014 average of 133.3 points. The bank also stated a more optimistic perception of the respondents for its report.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index fell 0.08 percent to reach 583.28 points. On the contrary, the VN30 Index added 0.06 percent to close at 613.90 points.

The gain was attributed to the rallying of Da Nang Rubber (DRC) shares, which hit the ceiling price, a 4.3 percent fillip in rubber firm Casumina (CSM)'s shares and Vinamilk (VNM) rising 4 percent. Financial group Ocean (OGC) also rose strongly, adding 3.3 percent despite the arrest of Ocean Bank's—the banking arm of the group–former Chairwoman Nguyen Minh Thu, just like her male predecessor Ha Van Tham.
Overall, among the 30 blue chips tracked by the VN30 Index, losers overwhelmed the gainers by 14 to 10.

The transaction value began to decrease from Wednesday's session and continued at the same speed, reaching 1.7 trillion VND (79.8 million USD) on a volume of 109.7 million shares.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slid 0.32 percent to close at 86.95 points. Similar to trading on the southern bourse, the top large-cap stocks in Hanoi boosted the HNX30 Index up 0.09 percent to 168.43 points.

The value and volume of traded shares was pegged at 612.16 billion VND (28.7 million USD) and 50.4 million units.-VNA