Prolonged sluggish trading further eroded investors' confidence, pushing shares down on both stock exchanges this morning.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index dropped 0.23 per cent to 475.49 points with only 18.8 million shares, worth VND290.5 billion (US$13.8 million), exchanged by the end of the morning.

Trading on shares of Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) continued to be busy however, with 2.6 million shares changing hands to make it the most active code of the session. Despite this, the shares fell 1.6 per cent to close at VND6,300 a share.

Blue chips' performances were mixed. While bank shares such as Military Bank (MBB), Sacombank (STB) and Vietcombank (VCB) gained modest value this morning, other heavyweight stocks lost out, including VinGroup (VIC), Vinamilk (VNM), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), Ocean Group (OGC) and Southern Rubber Industry (CSM).

The VN30 tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse was fractionally up 0.06 per cent to 537.55 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index lost 0.26 per cent to close at 58.54 points.

Trading continued to decline, reaching just 12.8 million shares, worth over VND84.8 billion ($4 million). PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) was temporarily the most active code on trades of 2.9 million shares, rising a healthy 4.44 per cent to VND4,700.

Trading will resume at 1pm