Excitement during Monday and Friday's sessions last week saved shares on the HCM City Stock Exchange from slipping into deeper gloom, enabling the VN-Index to make a cumulative advance of 0.47 per cent and close at 454.84 on Friday, after seven consecutive weeks of decline.
Rumours that the Government would require the State Bank of Viet Nam to review its stricter policies on the capital adequacy of banks and other risk provision measures recently issued in Circular No.13, seem to have bolstered trades late in the week.
The purpose of Circular No.13 was to get banks to reduce credit risks, said Nguyen Son Thach, an analyst from a Ha Noi-based securities firm.
However, many day traders anticipated an excessive impact from the regulations, and the fear was fanned by media reports swirling around it, Thach said.
And Le Xuan Nghia, Vice Chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Committee, agreed that Circular No 13 would fan worries of capital shortages in the coming months, as well as put upward pressures on interest rates.
As a consequence, trading volume on the HCM City Stock Exchange remained sluggish throughout the week, averaging just 32.5 million shares per day, worth an average of only VND867.6 billion ($44.5 million).
On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, shares continued their prolonged decline last week, with the HNX-Index slipping 2.64 per cent to close on Friday at 131.41 points.
The value of trades on the northern bourse averaged just VND709.4 billion ($36.4 million) per day, on a daily average volume of 28.6 million shares.
The low trading volume indicated the unwillingness of new investors to participate in the market, while existing investors were hesitant to act and take heavy losses in the currently depressed market, said FPT Securities Company analyst Tran Quang Vinh.
In the coming week, data on inflation, the trade deficit and industrial production would be released and would likely have an impact on the market, giving investors some basis for predicting the next shifts in official monetary policy.