Great investor confidence created strong gains on the nation's stock markets in a three-day trading week before the National Day holiday last week.
On the HCM City Stock Exchange, the VN-Index closed at 458.75 last Wednesday, up 6.9 per cent over the previous Friday's close, and bringing the Index back above 450 for the first time in the past two weeks. The southern bourse also achieved an increase of 15 per cent in average daily trading volume.
In Ha Noi, the HNX-Index closed up nearly 11.4 per cent to 131.66 points, with average trading volumes increasing by 30 per cent.
Market watchers said a capital influx from institutional investors helped ignite the modest rally. Foreign investors also continued to be net buyers on both exchanges, picking up a net of 4.4 million shares last week worth a combined VND232.2 billion ($11.9 million).
"Although the purpose of buys can be price elevation to seek profit, it did help the market dispel some of the gloom," said Nguyen Thuy Phuong, a broker with a Da Nang-based securities firm.
Thang Long Securities Company Deputy Director Quach Manh Hao said that explosive performance in the market reflected attractive stock-pricing levels, with an average market price-to-earning (P/E) ratio of 9.9x.
"Stock prices in our market definitely have a high potential for both domestic and and foreign institutional investors, and even for domestic individual investors, at least the more cautious ones," said Hao.
Last Monday, the markets heard rumours that the State Bank of Viet Nam would back off from the enforcement of Circular No.13 which would set stricter capital adequacy requirements on banks. A State Bank representative was quoted in VN&Index, saying that some provisions in the circular would be changed.
FPT Securities Company analysts predicted that the new capital influx would continue after the holidays.
"However, profit-taking will be seen early this week, due to the arrival of cheap stocks in accounts," they wrote in their weekly report, adding, "If confidence remains strong, an uptrend will be confirmed."
Despite increased lending by commercial banks increasing the level of capital available for the markets, Tai Viet Securities Company analyst Nguyen Quang Minh cautioned that ongoing sales of shares held by brokerages as collateral for earlier leveraged trading would continue to burden the market in the coming week.
"Profit-taking will also likely increase after five straight days of advances," Minh said.