Two days of gains during a strong mid-week rally
prevented the VN-Index from plunging too deeply last week, during a
period in which economic uncertainty has remained a major hindrance to
domestic stock market growth.


The Index lost 6.83 points overall, or 2.7 per cent, to end the week at 245.74.


Volumes improved significantly, averaging about 10
million shares per day, an increase of 25 per cent over the previous
week's average. Daily value reached around VND210 billion (US$12.4
million), compared to VND160 billion ($9.4 million) the previous week.


A strong rebound of 3.75 per cent on Wednesday was
attributed to a few shreds of good economic news including the
announcement that the nation saw a trade surplus in the first two
months of 2009, that Japan was resuming its official development
assistance (ODA) payments, and the State Bank of Viet Nam had lowered
the compulsory dong reserves requirement imposed on commercial banks.


Nevertheless, foreign investors continued to flee the
market, selling a net of 6.1 million shares, worth VND85.8 billion ($5
million).

While some analysts were
worried that a weak dong would discourage foreign investors in the
short- to medium-term, the Government last week affirmed that it had no
plan to adjust the current foreign exchange rate.


According to FPT
Securities Co data, insurance shares gained the most last week,
increasing 4.32 per cent, followed by banking shares, up 3.07 per cent.
Sacombank ([url="http://www.vietstock.com.vn/vstfinance/StockDetail.aspx?scode=STB" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 204); text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">STB) and Asia Commercial Bank (VCG) was also strongly up on mobile provider Viettel's acquisition of 35 million shares of