Stocks started brightly on both national stock exchanges this morning but soon faded as both indices closed in the red.


Although the Prime Minister yesterday decided not to hike petrol prices, opting to continue use of the price stabilisation fund to support prices, the news failed to restore investors' confidence after hard falls yesterday.
On the HCM City exchange, the VN-Index lost another 0.28 per cent to close the morning session at 463.77 points on a turnover of VND701 billion (US$33.5 million).


Some large-cap shares did recover this morning though, as Vietinbank (CTG), Phu My Fertiliser (DPM), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), property developer VinGroup (VIC) and dairy giant Vinamilk (VNM) increased by between 0.8-2.4 per cent.
But others still slumped, pulling the VN30 (tracking the top 30 shares on the bourse) down 0.4 per cent to 534.80 points.


Tan Tao Investment Industry (ITA) continued to be the most active code with 7.76 million shares changing hands as it fell 6.33 per cent to VND7,400 a share.


On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also gave up 0.29 per cent to close on 61.83 points.


More than 47.6 million shares, worth nearly VND361 billion ($17.3 million), were traded by the end of the morning session


PetroVietnam Construction (PVX) was temporarily leading the market on trades of 10.8 million shares but the shares continued to fall by another 6.35 per cent to VND5,900 a share.
Trading will resume at 1pm.