Local stock market yesterday witnessed a fall amid
lack of investors' confidence driven by the US financial crisis, and
unchanged interest rates along with a wait-and-see attitude for
quarterly business results.


The VN-Index closed down 2.32 per cent at 455.05, with 117 codes sliding, 33 advancing and 14 unchanged.


Many big stocks fell sharply; for instance, VNM of
Vinamilk, IMP of Imexpharm Pharmaceuticals and DHG of Hau Giang
Pharmaceuticals.


However, several lucky big stocks avoided the
downturn, such as Song Da Urban-IZ Investment & Development (SJS),
PetroVietnam Drillings (PVD) and Pha Lai Thermal Power (PPC) were
amongst the winners, but their gains were not big enough to push up the
index.


Securities analyst Dao Van Khanh of Agribank
Securities blamed yesterday fall on the high number of shares from
existing and newly listed firms which have been pipelined into the
market recently.


"Since the stock market has been running smoothly,
listed firms began restarting their capital expansion through issuing
share. Additionally, some newly listed firms have appeared on the
bourse with significant shares volume. This means there is more supply
than demand," said Khanh.


"In addition, concerns of destabilisation in US
financial markets has worried investors worldwide, and Vietnamese
investors also became more cautious. That's why they aren't buying as
many shares," he added.


Although the US government $700-billion bailout has
been widely publicised, investors are still worried about the
feasibility of the plan.


Sacombank (STB), Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) and Hoa
Phat Group (HPG) were the most active shares yesterday. STB saw 1.87
million shares change hands, SSI saw 760,740 and HPG 578,190 shares.


Trading volume today was much less than Tuesday, with
14.39 million shares worth VND487.25 billion (US$29.53 million)
changing hands, representing a 50 per cent reduction from Tuesday's
record high of VND1.41 trillion.


"Cautious trading, alongside concern about quarterly
business results, which are due out soon, have pulled down share volume
and value," said Khanh.


In Hanoi the HASTC-Index closed down 0.75 per cent at
151.47. The northern market saw 8.15 million shares traded with a
turnover of VND267.02 billion ($16.18 million).