The index ended the morning trade at 617.98, off the session's high of 619 points, with 69.5 million shares changing hands, far below the five-day trading average of 163 million shares, based on Reuters data.

Three stock brokerages, namely Bao Viet Securities, BIDV Securities and MB Securities, have advised clients to buy stocks, following four drops this week. On Thursday the index posted the largest fall in seven days.

Here is a snapshot of the VN Index  .VNI at midday (0431 GMT).

617.98

                PREV. CLOSE       

615.8

                   % CHANGE       

0.35%

                       HIGH         

619

                        LOW       

612.4

          Change (%) 1-mnth       

1.772

          Change (%) 3-mnth       

8.029

          Change (%) 1-year      

29.844

               52-week high      

644.56    

3-Sep-14

               52-week low       

473.52   

18-Sep-13

 Source: Reuters