Of the main three asset classes in Vietnam, stocks were a better bet than gold and property, a financial expert has told a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.


Unlike gold and property, the stock market doesn’t require big investments so various types of investors can participate, said Dinh The Hien, director of the Institute for Applied Informatics and Economic Studies in HCMC.


But Hien said small-time investors shouldn’t rely on technical analysis to trade stock at present, when the market was falling.


The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, known as HOSE, fell for a sixth straight day on Friday after rising steadily for nearly four weeks.


Hien suggested small-time investors rely on sentiment in the marketplace and economical factors, such as bank interest rates, inflation and the amount of foreign investment pouring into Vietnam, to make investment decisions.


“Making small investments gives investors small profits,” Hien said.


“The market will be volatile until the year’s end so small-time investors should sell when the share price of their stocks gain more than 10 percent.”


He forecast the VN-Index, the gauge of the 154 leading companies and four closed-end funds listed on the HOSE, will stand at 500 to 550 points at the end of this year.


The index closed at 429.46 points last Friday.


Hien said investing in property this year wasn’t a good idea because the government was increasing interest rates in a bid to battle accelerating inflation.


Property prices have dropped by 30 to 70 percent from a year earlier.


But Hien said it was a golden opportunity for large investors with long-term investment plans as they could earn huge profits from property investments after two or three years.


Hien said gold traders had also suffered losses recently as domestic prices followed see-sawing global prices.


Vietnamese investors, however, always faced difficulties in getting enough information to be able to confidently predict global prices.


Trading physical gold requires an investor to lock up quite a large amount of cash, he said.


Currency trading was also asset-intensive, Hien said, with little profit available because the dong-dollar rate was stable.