Shares nationwide lost ground on September 9, but profit-taking drove up the market's trading value to a five-year high.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the VN-Index shed 2 percent to close at 626.92 points.

The value of transactions hit a five-year high of 5 trillionVND (235.8 million USD) while trading volume also climbed to 280.3 million shares.

Almost all of the 30 blue chips on the VN30 Index lost value, with financial shares Tan Tao (ITA) and Ocean Group (OGC) reaching the floor prices.

Several declined strongly, including rubber company Casumina (CSM), Phu My Fertiliser (DPM), software developer FPT (FPT) and Kinh Do Confectionery (KDC), as well as steelmaker HoaPhat (HPG) and Refrigeration Electric Engineering (REE).

Only logistics company Gemadept (GMD) and PetroVietnam Drilling Services (PVD) managed to rise. The index closed 2.1 percent lower to 664.65 points.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also plunged by nearly 3.7 percent to 86.40 points on a turnover of 1.6 trillionVND (75.4 million USD). The HNX30 Index, tracking the exchanges 30 largest shares by capitalisation and liquidity, declined by 4.67 percent, reaching 176.71 points.

While domestic investors rushed to sell, foreign investors took the opportunity to buy. In HCM City, they bought a net of more than 118 billionVND (5.5 millionUSD), a whopping 220.5-percent increase compared with that of September 8 session. Meanwhile, they were net sellers in Hanoi by 8.6 billionVND (405,600 USD).

VNA/VNN