The VN-Index was largely unchanged yesterday, down a mere 0.03 points (or 0.01 per cent) to close at 314.71.


Blue chips like Saigon Securities (SSI), PetroVietnam
Finance (PVF) and FPT posed gains, but a number of penny stocks were
big losers on the day, including Nam Viet Seafood (NAV), due to the
ex-date for dividend payment; Lu Gia Mechanical Electrics (LGC) and
Saigon Hotel (SGH).


"The ups-and-downs of market indices is normal since
the exchange is now being governed by the global economic turmoil,"
said Nguyen Huy Duong, an analyst at Hoa Binh Securities.


Investors were also assuming a wait-and-see attitude
towards the new taxes on securities trades coming on January 1, causing
investors to be cautious about trading now, Duong said.


"It should be postponed," said VP Bank Securities
investor Nguyen Thien, who noted that the implementation of the new
taxes now could have an unexpected impact on the market.


Investor caution apparently reduced trading volumes
yesterday, with the HCM City Stock Exchange seeing only 10.80 million
shares, worth a combined VND329.12 billion (US$19.94 million), changing
hands during Monday's session.


Financials like Sacombank (STB), SSI and PVF continued
to maintain their positions as among the most heavily-traded shares,
although market-leader STB saw a volume of only 1.77 million shares on
the day, with the volumes in all other codes failing to break the
one-million mark.


Foreign investors continued selling off shares,
shedding over 2.01 million while picking up just 1.3 million. PVF, SSI
and Vinpearl (VPL) were among the few codes with net buys by foreign
investors.


In Ha Noi yesterday, the HASTC-Index was also off only
modestly, the losing 0.22 per cent to close at 103.97, on a volume of
6.61 million shares generating a turnover of VND169.07 billion ($10.29
million).