UPDATE 1-Hanoi stock market cuts Thursday trade short

(Adds details, comments)

HANOI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Vietnam's over-the-counter stock market cut trading short by one hour on Thursday due to problems in its information distribution system, annoying investors and prompting a drop of the index .HASTCI.

Trading on the Hanoi Securities Trading Center started an hour late at 9:30 am (0230 GMT) and would finish as usual at 11:00 am, the exchange said in a statement.

It blamed "problems in conveying transaction information from the HASTC trading system to member-securities companies".

"It's only a technical glitch, but we haven't got more details of it yet," an official at the Hanoi market's information desk told Reuters.

Brokers and investors said the trading delay had a negtive impact.

"Investors have one hour cut from their trading and that is bad," a broker in Hanoi said.

The Hanoi market index of 107 listed firms was down 0.61 percent at 329.02 points at 9:53 am (0253 GMT) after closing up 3.79 percent at 331.05 points on Wednesday.

The index has risen 36 percent so far this year and its market capitalisation is $7.93 billion. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)