Trading improved slightly this morning in line with rises in both national stock indices.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index went up another 0.26 per cent to 394.48 points by the end of this morning.

Value of trades rose slightly over yesterday morning, reaching VND387.3 billion (US$18.4 million) on a volume of nearly 24.7 million shares.
Blue chips gained, led by PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) with an increase of 4 per cent; insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH) up 2.3 per cent, property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and software giant FPT Corp up 1.8 per cent.

PVF was also the most active code on trades of 1.6 million shares after the information yesterday that PetroVietnam was seeking a bank to make a merger with PVF in bid to divest capital from this financial company.

The VN30 was up 0.4 per cent overall to 462.10 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also edged up 0.49 per cent to 55.48 points on a turnover of VND143.6 billion ($6.8 million).

Another subsidiary of PetroVietnam, PetroVietnam Construction (PVX), was the most active code on Ha Noi's exchange with 2.8 million shares traded. PVX is being traded at the ceiling price of VND4,600 a share.

Trading will resume at 1pm.