Trading continued to be sluggish on November 24, pulling down afternoon indices on the two stock exchanges.

Despite positive reactions from experts on the impact of Circular 36, investors still feared that the regulation would distress capital inflow. The circular stipulates that banks cannot lend more than 5 percent of charter capital for stock investment starting in February.

Slower trading pushed the VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange down 0.94 percent to close at 582.53 points and the HNX-Index on the Hanoi Stock Exchange down 1.26 percent to 88.02 points.

Almost 50 percent of stocks lost value across the two boards, led by blue chips. Major large-cap stocks like PV Gas (GAS), Vinamilk (VNM), Masan Group (MSN), Hong Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG), Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) and Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) all declined between 0.5-3 percent.

The VN30, which tracks the top 30 shares by market value and liquidity, slipped 1.18 percent to finish at 616.39 points.

Market volume was down 30 percent in HCM City, totaling nearly 116 million shares worth 2.02 trillion VND (94.8 million USD).

There were similar figures on the Hanoi bourse: 56 million shares, worth 823 billion USD (38.6 million USD), down 20 percent in both volume and value compared with November 22's levels.

Investors still focused on speculative stocks, showing interest in real estate companies like FLC Group (FLC), An Duong Thao Dien Co (HAR), Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) in HCM City and KLF Joint Venture Global Investment (KLF), PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) and Sai Gon Thuong Tin Real Estate (SCR) in Ha Noi. FLC and KLF were the two most active codes with 19 million shares and 11 million shares traded on each code, respectively.

Foreign investors concluded as net buyers on HCM City's market, picking up shares worth nearly 31 billion VND (1.5 million USD), but were net sellers on Hanoi's market, unloading over 3 billion VND(141,000 USD) in shares.-VNA