Vietnam Stock Exchange will extend trading hours from March 5

The original plan of trading hour extension to afternoon session for HoChiMinh Stock Exchange (HOSE) will be launched  on March 5, 2012(first Monday of the month).

HoChiMinh Stock Exchange will extend the trading hours in its securities market as follows:

Trading Session	Current	Effective March 5, 2012
Morning Session	08:30am - 11:30am	09:00am - 11:30am
Mid-day break	closed	11:30am - 01:00pm
Afternoon Session	closed	01:00pm - 02:15pm

The total trading time of two hours and a half in the morning for opening order-matching, continuous order-matching and put-through transactions will remains unchanged. 

The reason to extend the trading hours so as to be in line with the regional standard practices as are in China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, New Zealand, etc. With this in view, it is expected to make continuous order-matching in afternoon sessions longer in attempt to strengthen market liquidity.

Also, the plan suggests no newly-placed orders, amendment and cancellation of matched orders as well as put-through advertising and settlement during the mid-day trading break. 

Additional regulations will also be imposed namely all-day trading price band, determination of reference price, order cancellation and amendment.
 
Also according to Vu Bang, Chairman of the State Securities Commission, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the nation's main bourse, and the Hanoi Stock Exchange will likely to be merged in early 2013 if the plans to merge are approved by the government in the third quarter.