Shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchanges continued to decline yesterday as selling pressure increased due to a lack of supportive news.

"Investors were cautious with equity assets as the market lacked boosting news after the benchmark VN-Index hit a two-month high on Thursday," analysts of FPT Securities Co wrote on a report on July 11.

The benchmark VN-Index gave up 0.36 percent to close the session at 582.77 points, while the VN30 tracking the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity was also down 0.27 percent to end at 627.10 points.

The overall market condition was neutral, with 89 shares advancing, 85 declining and 128 closing flat.

Heavyweight stocks such as private equity Masan Group (MSN), PV Gas (GAS), insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), steelmaker Hoa Sen Group (HSG) and real-estate giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) all lost value.

Low demand drove liquidity down as the market volume dropped 50 percent from July 10 to 78.3 million shares and fund certificates while total trading value fell 40 percent to reach more than 1.26 trillion VND (59.7 million USD).

Two most active codes on the southern bourse were realty stocks. FLC Group (FLC) topped volume sales with 11 million shares traded, ending flat at 13,000 VND a share.

Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp (ITA) came second on trades of 4.6 million shares, dipping 1.2 percent to settle at VND8,200 per share.

On the other hand, the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange managed to close unchanged at 78.62 points although it sank below the neutral line for most of trading. Recovery of blue chips like Saigon Hanoi Bank (SHB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate Co (SCR), Saigon Hanoi Securities Co (SHS) and PetroVietnam Construction Corp (PVX) lifted the market.

PVX was also the most active stock on total trades of 6.2 million shares, growing 2.22 percent to close at 4,600 VND each.

Most shares (191) remained unchanged, while 82 shares rose and 85 tumbled.

The HNX30 dropped 0.16 percent to end at 159.76 points.

Trading decreased in the north as well as market volume and value went down 40 percent from the previous session, totalling 59.5 million shares, worth 630.3 billion VND (nearly 30 million USD).

Foreign investors reduced buying in the last session. They were net sellers on the Ho Chi Minh City market, unloading shares worth nearly 11 billion VND (521,000 USD), but they were still net buyers on the Hanoi exchange, picking up shares worth 20 billion VND (948,000 USD).-VNA