Shares declined substantially on Mar. 27 on both of the nation's stock exchanges, with the afternoon session widening morning losses as sales snowballed.

On the HCM City Exchange, the VN-Index slid by 2.9 percent to close at 445.92 points. The value of trades soared by nearly 26 percent over Monday's the previous, totalling 1.6 trillion VND (77 million USD), while volume jumped 28.6 percent to nearly 121 million shares.

Of the 30 leading shares by market capitalisation and liquidity, 27 declined, driving the VN30 Index down by 2.87 percent at 502.47 points. Only Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) and Becamex Infrastructure Development (IJC) bucked the trend, both closing up by 0.9 percent after flirting with their ceiling prices during morning trades.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by 178-75 overall, with Sacombank Securities Co (SBS) the most-active share with 6.3 million traded. SBS finished down 4.6 percent to 6,300 VND per share.

Analysts said it is normal to see a correcting session after shares have advanced almost continuously over the past three months, with many doubling or even tripling their prices.

"Leading stocks have come very close to their peak of September 2011, so it's a quite sensitive stage and the probability of an adjustment is large," BIDV Securities Co analysts wrote in a report, adding that positive economic data have already reflected in share price rises in recent weeks.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index declined by an even more substantial 3.56 percent to conclude the day's trades at 74.95 points. Only 90 shares gained out of a total of 398 codes.

Volume increased by 20 percent to nearly 123.5 million shares, worth a total of nearly 1.17 trillion VND (55.7 million USD).

Habubank (HBB) continued to dominate trading in Hanoi with 17.3 million shares exchanged, though it fell 6.7 percent to 7,000 VND per share.

At the beginning of March 27's morning and afternoon sessions, some brokerages reported that they could not connect to the Hanoi Stock Exchange's trading system which cause delays in placing orders for investors.

The Hanoi exchange has not given a word on this issue but it warned Rubber Securities Co on suspicion of spreading a virus into the exchange's trading system and the systems of other securities firms.

Foreign investors continued to express their faith in Vietnamese stocks by investing nearly 126 billion VND in a net buy of nearly 7 million shares on both markets on March 27.-VNA